After hearing about this recipe from Anna, Laurel, and Thalia, I decided to give it a go. I mulled the idea around for a few weeks, unsure if I wanted to commit to another project. Then I found a cool jar at Peir 1 (on clearance). I love the look of recycled glass.
The recipe is simple, with just four ingredients. It can be found at this website.
Grating the soap was the most time consuming part. I bought an extra fine grater for the job. I love the smell of the Fels Naptha soap. It has citrus aroma. Grating it this fine insures it will dissolve well in the washing machine water.
My bowl wasn't quite big enough; I ended up making two batches.
One of the cool things about this detergent is that it only takes one tablespoon per load. (Two for extra dirty clothes.) I still use spray Oxyclean on the girls' clothes before washing. I've been using this detergent for about a month, and our clothes and linens seem to be just as clean. It costs a fraction of the price of store bought detergent, and now I have this cool jar of soap in my laundry room instead of a plastic container of brand name stuff. Aesthetic perks keep me going. If I'm going to do 15 loads of laundry a week, I might as well have a cool jar to enjoy in the process. I feel the same way about kitchen extras. My favorite kitchen thing is a whisk from Antropologie that has a porcelain handle. Other kitchen treasures are pot holders made by my great grandma. Perhaps I'll post some photos of my favorite around-the-house items soon. Right now, it's time to do some more laundry!
9 comments:
I currently have mine in an old sherbert container - definitely not as pretty as yours - I think I'll keep my eye open for a pretty container too. I feel like surrounding myself with pretty things. Okay, at this very moment, I feel like spending a ton of money on pretty things and eating a ton of unhealthy food - why are those the 2 things I want to do when I am having a bad day???
Btw, I grated my soap in my food processor with the grater attachment. It makes larger pieces of soap but they seem to dissolve just fine.
Laurel, I imagine the jar I have might still be available at Pier 1. But don't take your boys in there! :)
I love this! Everything about it: the jar, the homemade laudry soap, mixing chemicals together...very cool.
I only wish I were brave enough to try it.
ok...I'm gonna do it after my Tide (and the small bottle of Purex) runs out. I was going to switch back to 7th Gen. Lavender but you've sold me on the homemade stuff. Where did you say you got the Fels Naptha? Thalia's Harp's? :)
Oh man, this is very cool. Bek do you use this on your cloth diapers? I'm really careful about what soap I use for them b/c I don't want the company to have an excuse for not taking it back if I have a problem and I really don't want to have the diapers start repelling either.
However, we are in the need for more regular laundry soap. I was going to have Nathan order it bulk through Organic Valley but this may be something for us to try. I appreciate Laurel's suggestion of using the food processor. I HATE grating things by hand and don't find myself having the patience for that part. I could maybe get myself to do it once but not every time we needed laundry soap. The food processor tip has persuaded me to try this.
Kelli,
My friend Thalia uses this same laundry detergent on her cloth diapers. I'll send you her email address so you can chat with her about it...
girl, you have such skill.
even the way that you layout your blog and blog pix scream, "I HAVE MAD ARTISTIC TALENT".
Gow was looking at your blog with me one day and said, " she is soo artistic, if I even had a little bit of her skill i would be pleased."
it's true dear friend.
you can't help but to just be truly TALENTED!
we love you!
I was just about to comment that I will take a look at Pier 1 since I plan on looking there for a shower curtain. But then I remembered all the glass breakage this week at my house and I think we'll be sticking with the plastic sherbert container for now. :)
thank you for the information, ms bekah :) you have helped us in our investigatory project in chemistry:) god bless you and your family :)
~Corina, April, Sam and Erin :)
Post a Comment