"It's a type of soap we use to wash our clothes."
"But, what IS it?"
"Um, ahhhhh, well, harummph. I don't know!"
And, I do not like not knowing things. I am the all powerful omnipotent Mama, I know all because I am all (at least in their little universe).
To remedy this, I consulted the real omnipotent power: Google. Google thusly led me to many a home recipe for laundry soap and my inner Martha Stewart shouted with glee. I smell an eco-friendly crafty science project brewing!
First things first, I assembled the ingredients. 98% of the recipes I found called for something called Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap. If you aren’t familiar with it, let’s just say it’s hardcore. My mother used it to eradicate Georgia Red Clay stains from my sister’s uniforms. I have learned, however, that me and Fels Naptha aren’t too friendly. Don’t get me wrong, it works stain miracles but one day I grabbed the bar with my bare hard to scrub at a particularly heinous stain and shrieked like a 13 year old girl who's brother walked in on her in the bathroom. It was like shaking hands with a Portuguese Man-of-war. Instead I decided to use a Bar of Kirk’s Original Castile Soap, which is plant based and very earth friendly.
I handed the bar over to my girls and had them take turns shredding
it. Some folks use a Cuisinart but I found my slave labor, um I
mean children to be just as effective and heck they think it is
fun!
I used the entire bar and put the shreds into a large pot with 6
cups of water, heating it on my stove top at medium until the soap
melted.
Next I had my girls measure out 3/4 cup of Borax and 3/4 cup
Washing Soda. Look at picture 2, those are the boxes. Take note
that it actually says “super washing soda” and not
baking soda. I found both of these products in the laundry isle of
my local grocery store, though in some areas I hear washing soda is
harder to procure then crack, you should move or just order it from
an online store.
While I endlessly stirred, I sent the girls to find a large plastic bucket. In said pail, I dumped 4 cups of HOT water and the stove top soapy concoction. After a few good stirs I added in 22 cups of water (about 1 gallon plus 6 cups).
I let the whole shebang sit for 24 hours, marked by an occasional vigorous stirring.
*let us take a brief aside to remind those of you with children and animals not to leave this bucket on the floor. It is entirely too enticing. Your dog will be belching bubbles and lord knows we don’t need any kiddos face first in a five gallon bucket - NOT GOOD. I have mine sitting on top of my dryer. To keep things tidy, I laid out a junk towel and placed the bucket on there*
After 24 hours, the mixture resembles a runny snotty gel type solution, sometimes referred to as an ‘egg noodle soup’ look, though I tend to call it washing snot or the phlegm bucket. YUM. You use about 1/2 a cup per load, a little more for ginormous loads and less for smaller loads.
It works!
I used it on The Hubster’s stinky nasty work undergarments
and everything smells normal - no lingering monkey butt funk.
My children were elated to help make something useful and our earth
friendly homemade soap project has inspired my husband to design a
gray water system. One day, one far far off day (seriously far off
people. It took us 4 years to finish out an addition on our house),
we will be able to divert our wash water to irrigate our lawn. Now
will someone help me shove my inner Martha Stewart back in her box?
Well, maybe after she helps me hang the wash out on the clothes
line.
Read more Wisdom from Erin Monroe at Capessa.com.
