Thursday, January 30, 2014

Homemade Laundry Soap - It's A Bust


Almost a year ago I gave in and made a batch of homemade laundry detergent.  After reading so much about it and my own mother's rave reviews, how could I not?  A trip to the store for supplies was made - borax, washing soda and bars of Fels Naptha soap.

Once home I grated the soap, which I found was surprisingly easy, added the appropriate amounts of borax and soda and mixed it well.  Actually I snapped the lid on the container and shook the heck out of it.

Then I tried it.  Seemed fine.

Over the course of the year I had made up two batches of the stuff and used it exclusively to do our laundry.  But then I started to notice our stuff started to smell a little funky.  Especially the sheets, towels and bathrobes.  I washed everything all over again and still funky.  Plus our whites weren't really all that white.

I went to the store and bought a small bottle of cheap liquid laundry soap and washed the laundry again.  No more odor and the whites are amazingly white once again.  Now I am back to using commercial brand detergent.

I was hopeful for a thrifty and environmentally friendly laundry soap alternative but for me this one just wasn't it.  Bummer. 

How about you?  Do you make your own laundry soap?  Do you like the way it cleans your clothes?

15 comments:

  1. I found the same thing: funky smell, dingy whites and went back to the hard stuff, too. We can't say we didn't try though!

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  2. I wanted to try this. So many rave about it. althought I have heard comments that whites weren't as white. So glad for your honesty. It will save me the time from making it and using it.

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  3. Have you considered turning off the word verification. I had to do two to get the last post to post. Sometimes they words are too small to see. I don't use it and haven't had any issues.

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    1. I did turn it off and for a couple weeks all was well. Then I got lambasted with spam, it was awful. So I turned it back on. I know it is a pain.

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  4. I have tried the liquid and powdered versions, neither satisfied me. I like Tide and CVS has it on sale so often, I think I have a years worth stockpiled.
    I use Tide for clothes and the cheapest powder for sheets,towels, anything without stains.
    Having stains on clothes and not being able to wear them is not frugal so I use Tide.

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    1. I like Tide too and I completely agree, clothes with stains are not frugal. Tide goes on sale a lot around here too, especially at Walgreens.

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  5. I have read many blogs where people tried it and had the same results as you. I can buy stuff fairly cheap on sale. I will use pretty much anything except Tide and Arm and Hammer. I hate how they smell.

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    1. I've never used Arm & Hammer. With Tide I find you need to use a lot less than they say on the bottle. It can be overpowering. I can't stand the smell of Gain. Not even their dish soap. Too strong a fragrance. I'm finding the cheap stuff works pretty well and it is low sudsing plus you don't smell like it.

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  6. Have you tried soap nuts? You can get a trial pack on amazon. I bought 3 lbs last April and I still have half the bag so it seems pretty economical. And very natural.

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  7. I made homemade laundry soap and use Borax, Super Washing Soda, alb Box of Baking Soda and Fels Naptha (3 bars) or you can use 2 bars of Zote laundry soap from Walmart (97 cents each also found in the laundry aisle) then for stain removing power, I added a big box of Biz and Clorox 2 Bleach. For a pretty scent I used the Downy Unstoppables, which can be had cheaply with coupons. My friend who has 5 boys uses this and it gets the stains out of all of her clothes no problem! I'm an RN and wash all of my clothes in it too. I've been using my homemade soap since mid-November and have a lot left!

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    1. Thanks Kelly. I may have to give this a try. I like the idea behind homemade laundry detergent. Maybe a little laundry booster would help. The Zote may be better too.

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  8. I've been using HM no grate method for over 2 years with great results. I do add 1 capful of store bought liquid detergent to each gallon. saves me tons of money. Recipe is 1 gallon booking water. 2 TBSP each: washing soda, borax, and oxy clean. Shake well. 1\2 cup per wash.

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