The Preston household is making a commitment to "go green." We want to use more natural, organic, local, and earth-friendly products and food in our home. This is a huge commitment - it takes both time and money. However, in the long run, it makes us feel healthy and good about how we run our home. One of our first attempts at "going green" is laundry detergent. Now, if you are married to man like my husband, he'll go through three outfits a day. Plus, as a military man who works on a ship all day, he comes home covered in grease, oil, and dirt. Laundry time is ALL THE TIME. So, to cut down on our costs, waste, and putting chemicals back into the water, we decided to use an all-natural laundry detergent.
Here's the recipe.
You'll need:
Borax (about $4), Washing Soda (about $3), and Castille soap ($2.50 for 3 bars).
First, in a medium size bowl, add 1 cup Borax:
And 1 cup Washing Soda:
And 1 ENTIRE bar of Castille soap - grated.
It doesn't hurt to have a handsome husband help with the grating, either. He loves being involved!
Mix all 3 ingredients together and you're done!
Here's the end product. If you are like me, and all your appropriately sized tupperware is holding leftovers in your fridge, just grab a plastic bag.
Use about 1/4 cup per load. This recipe will do about 15-20 loads.
If you have a particularly oily or greasy load of laundry (like I do a few times a week!), just add a drizzle of your regular dishwashing detergent. It will pull out all the grease!
I washed our first load with this detergent and it worked perfectly. Enjoy!
Cool! I'm actually going to be making some of this THIS week! I have to make some in a day or two, actually, b/c we're now out of laundry detergent. ;) I'm going to try the powder version, too, since it takes up less room and is quicker to make. Just need to get a different bar soap. We picked up the Fels-Naptha, but I can't stand the smell (since getting used to natural detergents, I cannot stand the scent of conventional ones) and have since heard it's not so great as it might seem to be (of course, same goes for borax...). So, I just need to get the other bar soap we plan on using. With Aiden's sensitive skin, we're super careful with ingredients we use around here.
ReplyDeleteI've got lots of green cleaning tips and recipes on my blog if you're interested!
Not sure if you're wanting to try homemade dishwasher detergent. It's the ONE thing I have tried and not liked... :( We use Ecover, though, and LOVE it. We just get it by the case from amazon to get the subscribe and save discount (except, I think we might have discovered it's cheaper to get a case at Whole Foods? Can't remember...). Even the skeptical hubby admitted it cleaned just as well (and he even thought better!) than the stuff we used to use. ;)
Good luck on your green journey! :)