Earth Day

Being Earth Day, I thought I would share with you one of my most requested items and most requested recipe. Laundry Detergent: If you can make a cake, you can do this and it is much easier. I used to make this on a large scale and sell it in the store, but now I just make it by request since I carry Laundry Berries, which I also love.

First some exciting money facts:

Cost to make your own: Around $2 per batch. This is about 5.7 cents per load (using 2 tablespoons for each load, you get about 35 loads). Arm & Hammer laundry detergent about 12.4 cents per load. Tide detergent is 30 cents and more per load. Wouldn't you love to make laundry cost less!! This can revolutionize your budget, since we also provide you with a fabric softener that will cost pennies on the dollar compared to some of the costly and harmful fabric softeners you may be or may have used.

Fels Naptha Laundry Powder

1. 1 bar Fels Naptha soap, grated (comes out to about 2 cups) - You can find this in the grocery store laundry aisle, probably on the bottom shelf. It is only about $1

2. 1 c Borax - Found in the grocery store laundry aisle and some hardware stores. It is a wonderful multi-purpose cleaning agent that used to be a household name. There are plenty of uses listed on the box and more can be found online.


3. 1 c Washing Soda - Also found in the grocery store laundry aisle. I use Arm & Hammer brand since that is all I have ever found. It is one of those little know useful items, so it may be on the bottom shelf, also.

4. 1/4 c OxyClean (optional, though I don't use it)

Mix it all together into a bumpy, granular mix. Don’t worry about stuff getting correctly dispersed, even if it doesn’t quite look like it does. Use 1T for a light load. Use 2T for a large or dirty load (It’s true! Only 2 Tablespoons per load!)

Fels Naptha Laundry Detergent

This is basically the same formula as above, but in a liquid form.

Simply melt the Fels Naptha gratings in 2 cups water on the stove. Stir gently, but constantly, not letting it boil or suds over, until it is all melted, looking much like orange juice. Once melted, pour the water slurry into a 5 gallon pail and add 1 gallon hottest tap water.

Add the remaining powders and stir gently. Once fully stirred, add hottest tap water to about 3 gallons, or 2/3 to 3/4 full in the bucket. Let sit overnight. This WILL GEL. Stir in the morning, and it is ready to use. It makes kind of a gelatinous sludge, but it works GREAT!!!!

Use 1 -2 cups per load, depending on soil and load levels.

Laundry Rinse (instead of fabric softener which is so bad for you and the environment, you don’t even want to know)

1 gal white or apple cider vinegar

25-30 drops essential oil - optional (Straight vinegar works just fine though.)

Use 1/4 c in the rinse cycle. NO, your clothes won’t smell like vinegar. The vinegar clears the last bit of soap remaining on all your clothes and reduces static while softening the clothes and neutralizing foul odors. Towels that are washed with fabric softener will absorb less water, but when you use vinegar, the towels will actually absorb more water. Fantastic!!

And now you’re on your way to a cheaper, greener and healthier cleaning strategy. Don’t you feel good?