Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

Homemade Laundry Soap Powder

It seems that there is about as many variations to homemade laundry soap recieps as there are people making them.  I have found in the time I have been making my own laundry soap that there are alot of reasons why a recipe that works for one may fail for another.  Fabric content is a consideration as cottons and polyesters react differently in the way they hold on to stains and odors.  How soiled are you clothing? Here, our laundry can get pretty soiled from working outdoors and around the animals, not to mention the cloth diapers that can have their own laudering issues. The third consideration is your water.  The hardness or mineral content of your water can cause laundry soaps to not clean as well. In the case of hard water you need to add extra borax to your soap to soften the water.  Lastly, the performance of your washing machine's agitation in the wash cycle has a tremendous effect on how clean your laundry becomes.

One common complaint that I hear from people not used to making their own laundry soap is that the soap does not produce alot of suds.  They are under the assumption that the more soap bubbles, the cleaner your clothes become.  The amount of soap suds has little affect on how clean your clothes become.  From my experience, I have found that a soap that produces alot of suds is most likely to leave alot of soap residue in your clothing.  A good way to see how much soap is still in your laundry when they are being rinsed is to look at the rinse water when it has been agitated.  If you see alot of suds on top, you can bet your clothing has alot of soap still in them even after the rinse cycle is finished.  The suds, since they float on the water surface, are the last thing to touch your clothing when the water drains out and ends up laying right on the clothing.  During the spin cycle, the sids are drawn into the fibers of your clothing as the water is drawn out.

That said, here is the ratio of ingredients that through experimenting, I have found gives the best results for our laundry: 1 part soap, 2 parts borax, 2 parts washing soda.

I kept the ingredients in powder form as it is more convenient, takes less storage space, and it is easy to adjust the ingredients if needed if I see that the recipe needs adjusting.  I start by grating Ivory soap (I like the scent of it) on a fine grater.  I like the grated soap to be as small as possible as I find it mixes into the other ingredients more evenly and it will dissolve faster in the wash.  I use white vinegar as a rinse instead of fabric softener.  The white vinegar in your rinse cycle will remove any soap residue that may be left in your laundry.

Last night, I made a batch using 3 bars of Ivory soap.  The batch made enough soap powder to fill 2 large baby formula powder cans.  When presoaking diapers, I use 1 scoop (1 tablespoon) of the soap in the diaper bucket.  It works great to help prevent stains in the soiled diapers and the Ivory soap scent prevents the "diaper pail" odor.  For a large load of laundry, I use 4 scoops of the powder.  This amount even cleans the grubby looking jeans.

One of the advantages that I am finding with the powdered soap recipe is that if I find that my laundry is needing more washing soda or any of the other ingredients, I can easily stir the added amount into the soap without having to add the additional ingredients separately to each load. 

I remember my Grandma using powdered laundry soap for everything.  She used it for all of her cleaning, including washing dishes and wiping things down each day.  She also used the powder laundry soap in her mop bucket with abit of bleach added to clean her linoleum floors in the kitchen and bath. 

There are several advantages to making your own laundry soap.  The first being the cost.  The cost of homemade is less than half the cost of buying the cheap brands of laundry soap.  Another advantage is that you know exactly what is in the soap.  If you have a family member who has a sensitivity to the fragrances or another ingredient in the soap, you can leave it out.  I am able to use this soap on the baby's laundry without any concerns of the soap being too harsh for his tender skin.  You can easily customize the recipe to suit the needs of your own family. 

Laundry soap is one of the easiest soaps to make if you are new to soapmaking.  If you give it a try, or use homemade laundry soap, I would love to hear how you like it and what your experiences have been.