From the Survival Blog
Here is a recipe for soap, not food,.
This has saved us a lot of money and aggravation over the years. We decided to
make our own laundry soap after my daughter (now four years old) was born. Her
skin wouldn't tolerate any artificial perfumes or dyes and she would break out
in horrible acne if exposed to artificiality of that sort.
The basis of this recipe we found
online, then modified it to meet our needs. It includes only shelf-stable
materials and is suitable for both washing machines and hand-washing.
The ingredients include:
--One bar of soap, grated. The soap
you use is up to you. We've used Ivory, Octagon, soap made at home with lye and
vegetable fats, homemade soap with animal fats and lye, a soap called Zote(
that is usually marketed to Latinos), Fels Naphtha, and a wide variety of
whatever is on hand, all with good results. The Zote is marketed as a laundry
soap. It comes in a 14 oz. bar, significantly larger than a standard 4-5 oz bar
of soap, so we usually make a double batch when using it. (If the math seems
off, adjust it. I'm saying only what has worked for us.)
--1 cup of washing soda. This is not
baking soda. I have read that you can make washing soda out of baking soda by
baking it (which eliminates some of the carbon and some oxygen, as I understand
it). But as the two are approximately the same cost to begin with, I see no
sense in converting sodium bicarbonate into sodium carbonate. The only reason I
can think of is if you should choose to store only baking soda and not washing
soda, or if you should happen to run out of bicarb.
--1/2 (halfa) cup of borax. Some
people use only a quarter cup of borax, claiming it doesn't cause clothing to
break down as quickly. They might be right. They might not. YMMV. We use a half cup and have seen no
inordinately negative effects in four years.
--3 gallons of water. Just water.
First, start by boiling about 2-3
quarts of water in a stainless steel pot. DO NOT use your good
cast iron for this unless you want to ruin the seasoning/coating. Turn the
water down to a simmer after it boils.
Begin adding the shredded soap
slowly, allowing a small quantity to dissolve before adding another bit. Use a
large stainless steel or plastic spoon to stir. Stir constantly until all soap
has been added and is dissolved. You will end up with a thick mixture I call "soap
soup" just because it's fun to say.
Into a five-gallon bucket or other
large container, place the borax and washing soda. Pour the soap soup in with
the other ingredients and stir with the stainless steel spoon until the dry
ingredients are dissolved (or nearly so). We use a round kitchen-size trash can
with marks on the outside to show three gallons and six gallons are. You'll
have to measure those ahead of time.
Add enough warm water to bring to
three gallons. Stir wholeheartedly, making sure everything but the bucket and
spoon dissolves. Cover the mixture and allow it to sit for 24 hours before
putting it in bottles. You don't even have to bottle it: You can use it
straight out of the bucket. However, we found it best to save up empty laundry
detergent bottles for a month or so before beginning this project. If you stir
the bucket thoroughly before bottling, and shake each bottle thoroughly before
using, you'll get the optimum distribution of materials for each load of
laundry.
At one cup of laundry detergent per
load, this makes 48 loads. I usually make a double batch, which is 96 loads --
meaning about two or three months worth of laundry for approximately $6
invested in the detergent. I'm an EMT and my uniform must be changed and washed
after each 24-hour shift, at least, to get rid of the mixture of sweat, blood,
and red Mississippi mud. I have a 4-year-old, my wife is a professional, and I
work 48-96 hours a week and consequently I do a lot of laundry.
Before bottling the soap, I add 30-40
drops of tea tree essential oil to the mixture. That might sound like a lot,
but 30 drops over 96 loads is actually a very small quantity. My wife has a
history of MRSA and the tea tree
oil seems to be effective in keeping that particular infection at bay. Put it
this way: She hasn't had an outbreak since we started using the oil. You could
also add other (and more) essential oils to the soap mixture, should you want
your clothing to smell pretty. I prefer my clothes to smell like nothing at all
(call it OPSEC), and a third of a
drop of tea tree oil per load leaves nothing noticeable behind. Lavender and
other flowery oils do leave a smell.
So, for five or six cents per load of
laundry using shelf-stable ingredients, you get clothing that is very clean,
smells of nothing at all (unless you want it to), and turns whites more white
while leaving colored clothing still colored.
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