Laundry Detergent - New Recipe

I don't like the laundry detergent recipe I got from Bonzai Aphrodite that I posted on my Green Cleaning post. It's just too clumpy and too much work for the amount. It worked fine, but I want to experiment. Sadly, we've been buying laundry detergent again because being in grad school eats up all of my free time. Now that I am done (did I mention before that I am done?! :) ), I have more time to try some new ones out. I came across a website with 10 different versions on the same thing -- some liquid, some powder, some large quantities, some small. I am trying recipes 1 and 4. I started with #4. It's way easy, though I will let you know how it works later.

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finished product

Powdered Laundry Detergent

-2 cups soap finely grated (I used Zote, because it's what I had, though any castile soap or something that does not have a lot of perfume)
-1 cup Washing Soda
-1 cup Borax

Mix well. Store in an airtight container. Use 2 tablespoons per full load. Simple.

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melting the soap

Liquid Detergent

-1 quart water (boiling)

-2 cups bar soap (grated)

-2 cups Borax

-2 cups Washing Soda

1. Add the grated soap to the boiling water and stir until melted. Keep on low heat while melting.

2. Pour the soap water into a large, clean pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved.

3. Add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed.

4. Cover pail and use 1/4 cup for each full load. Stir/shake the soap before using. 

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getting creative with my containers

I'll let you know how they work! As you can see from the pictures, the powdered version takes up way less space and has the obvious plus of not using water in the recipe. Though I know some washers don't do well with powdered detergents and they also don't work with septic tanks. We'll try them out this weekend. I'll leave you with an interesting post on baking soda from ReNest.

Peace!

PS: It's so nice being done with school! The posts are longer, more details and now photos are back!