Home Made Laundry Soap Revisited

 

I have talked about making my own laundry soap before here, and here. and this is a wonderful recipe and I have had great results for a couple of years now.

A few months ago I started playing around with liquid Castile soap and just love it. I took the basic recipe and modified it a bit with great results. While a bit thinner than the original recipe it is a time saver.

Here is what I do.

In my 5 gallon bucket I add 4 cups of hot water from the faucet. add to this 3/4 cup of liquid castile soap, 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup of borax. STIR until all is dissolve, add enough warm water to almost fill the bucket and let it cool a bit. Then add my essential oils. About 1/2 an ounce works well. My favorite combination these days is tea tree oil and lavender.

Once cool I give the bucket a good stir and let sit 24 hours. The next day give it a good stir again the top will have a thick jelly like surface with water underneath. Then I use a large measuring cup to transfer it into liquid laundry soap container I have collected. I find that the top line on the cap is about the right amount for a load…about 1/2 cup. I the containers I have are the non-concentrated kind so the caps are large. Before each use give the jug a good shake.

For the rinse cycle I use 2 downy softener balls with vinegar. Don’t worry, you won’t smell the vinegar when the laundry is done.

I don’t often use the dryer but when I do, a muslin bag filled with dried lavender tossed in works great. Smells great and no problems with static.

I have also discovered the wonders of those foaming liquid soap dispensers. For my birthday I was given a rather expensive bottle of the liquid soap. It was wonderful but sure didn’t last long. I must wash my hand 20 times a day if not more. Any way, I saved the dispenser and started adding about 1/4 cup of the liquid castile soap, a few drops of essential oil and a pinch of borax then fill the container with water. This works great.

So what recipes have you discovered with liquid castile soap?

Natural Cleaning Recipes

I have had this post up for quite some time now and every time I think I have the page looking good I recheck it and it’s all back to being jumbled around. It’s something in the coding on the page that I can’t figure out.

So to fix it I am just going to re-post them all here and since it’s been quite some time since I have looked at the posted recipes I will also go ahead and update them with any improvements I have come up with.

Of course if you have any of your own I would love to give them a try, feel free to post them.

 I like these recipes because they are all made with safe and natural ingredients. The post where I talked about the ingredients is here at Home Made Cleaning Supplies. Most if not all are also vegan friendly.

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Liquid Laundry Soap

• 1 bar Castile Soap, grated
• 1 cup Washing Soda-Sodium Carbonate- (not baking soda)
• 1 cup Borax
• 1 ounce lavender essential oil (or your favorite scent)
• 5 gallon bucket with lid

Using a cheese grater, the larger hole side grate, your bar soap. You can also use a knife to chop into pieces and finish off the process with your food processor or blender.

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In a pot add 4 cups of water and grated soap and heat to a boil, continue until soap is melted. to this add the washing soda and borax, continue to stir until dissolved well and remove from heat and pour into your bucket.

Add 4 cups HOT water into the bucket and stir until everything is mixed well. Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups cold water and stir, stir in essential oil well, cover bucket and let sit 24 hours.

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In 24 hours remove cover and your soap should be a thin gel. Use 1/2 cup per load to wash.

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I use a downy fabric softener ball with white vinegar for the rinse cycle.

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Note:

 

We have a septic system and powders in general aren’t good for it. The original recipe called for soap flakes but here in the US soap flakes are not easily available. There are other recipes that call for Fels Naptha soap, but this has petroleum in it, so I choose to use pure Castile soap. In the past I had used Ivory soap but I now like the castile soap better.

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Powdered Laundry Soap

Small batch

This recipe works well for front loading machines.

• ½ cup Borax
• ½ cup Washing Soda
• ½ bar of grated Castile soap, grated fine
• 8 drops of lavender essential oil or your favorite scent

Grate the bar of soap using a cheese grater, grate as small as possible. I have used the large holes in the grater and processed it further in my blender. Worked great.

Mix the soap, Borax, and Washing Soda together in a sealed container.

Sprinkle a few drops of essential oil on top of mixture, recover and shake. Continue until you like the smell. For this size batch I wouldn’t use much more than 8 drops. You aren’t going to get a stronger scent so it will waste your oils.

Use 2 tablespoons per load. For extra large loads or really dirty loads use 3 tablespoons.

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Oven Cleaner

 

I keep this recipe mix in an old jar and just use a bit when needed. I have a self cleaning oven so I don’t ever have that much clean up to do. I also keep a sheet of aluminum foil in the oven and place it under anything I bake that might spill over while cooking.

• 3/4 cup salt
• 1/2 cup Borax
• 32 oz. Baking Soda
• Water
• Vinegar

Mix all dry ingredients together and store in a glass jar. When ready to use pour out a small amount into a bowl and add small amount of water to make a paste. Spread it on the oven and let sit one half hour. Wipe off with a clean cloth and vinegar.

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Scouring Pads

 

I have always traded with a neighbor for the loofah she grows, cut them into 1″ thick slices and scrub away with my favorite cleaner. When used up, rinse well and toss into the compost.

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I also use simple salt and water or baking soda and water made into a paste.

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Toilet Bowl Cleaner 1 cup of white vinegar left in the bowl overnight and scrubbed in the morning.

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Anti-bacterial/Anti-fungal multipurpose Cleaner

 

I am not a big fan of anti-bacterial anything. Germs and bacteria are a natural part of things. I beleive the new fad of anti-bacterial everything is contributing to the ever increasing resisiance of the virus and bacterial infections in humans and animals. Plain soap and warm water with a bit of elbow grease will serve you better.

That being said I now step down of my soap box and will tell you for the occasion when it is needed I use,

 

• 4 Tbl. Lemon juice
• 1 Tbl. Tea Tree oil
• equal parts white vinegar and distilled water.

Mixed together in a spray bottle. Shake before using.

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Window Wash also good for the stove and counter tops

 

• 1/2 part white vinegar
• 1/2 part Water
• a splash or two of rubbing alcohol

Mixed together in a spray bottle. Shake before using. Use old black and white news paper instead of paper towels. My friend Mitchell suggested I add the alcohol to help the glass dry faster, and boy he is right. My Mennonite friend usually is about such things

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Carpet Fresh

 

• 1 old jar
• Baking soda (1lb.)
• 20 drops essential oil

mix together in glass jar. Sprinkle on carpet and let sit overnight, vacuum the next day.

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Liquid Dish Soap- My old Recipe

 

It still works great for me but now I like the new found liquid castile soap. I can get it localy now…

 

• 2 cups of warm water
• 2 cups shredded bar soap (I use Ivory)
• Large pot
• 2 Tbl. liquid vegetable glycerin
• ½ cup lemon juice
• 2-5 drops Essential Oil (I like eucalyptus)
• 5 drops Tea Tree Oil (Antibacterial)

Mix warm water and soap flakes in a large pot. Dissolve the soap flakes in the water on the stove over low heat. Continually stir the mix while it is heating.

Stir in the glycerin and remove from heat. Let cool until almost room temperature and then add lemon juice (or white vinegar).

Mix in your favorite essential oil and Tea Tree oil. Pour the mixture into bottles and shake well. I have been using old dish soap bottles I got from our town’s recycle center.

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Note:

 

This recipe will be very thin nothing like the store bought dish soaps. That’s ok, it works very well for me. I also have reduced the amount of water considerably.

If you are having a problem with grease I would use the lemon juice in place of the vinegar.  I personally have never had a problem with grease, I rinse my dishes first in hot water before washing them. Also it is not going to suds all that much, and that’s ok, suds don’t do the cleaning.

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Liquid Dish Soap & Veggie Scrub   -    The new recipe

• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1/2  cup liquid castile soap 
• 2 tsp. vegetable glycerin
• 20 drops orange or lemon essential oil

Mix together and store in an old soap bottle.

I like this new recipe first because it’s much quicker and easier to make and second because it uses castile soap, and I happen to be in love with it lately.

I also use this recipe to scrub veggies with. One note you want to use vegetable glycerin not regular glycerin.

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Foaming Hand Wash

What a great invention this is! Foaming hand wash is nothing but watered down soap and by using a special foaming pump.

• 1 C. warm distilled water
• 4 Tbl. liquid castile soap
• 1 tsp. pure vegetable glycerin
• 1 tsp. almond oil
• 16 drops grapefruit essential oil
• 20 drops lavender essential oil
• 10 drops eucalyptus essential oil

Put all ingredients in a large jar with a lid. Shake to mix. Pour into a soap foamer. This will add some moisturizing to the soap and it smells nice too. You can try other essential oils and come up with your own combinations.

home made cleaning supplies

Lately I have received many questions about my home made cleaning products and thought it was worth revisiting.

I restarted making my own cleaners years ago, 19 to be exact. This is when my youngest son was born with asthma and allergies. Since then it has been a struggle to control these for him and our house has changed A LOT since then. Keeping the dust down is key for us as is all irritants out of the air. Also at the same time I became aware of all the nasty ingredients in at that time ALL of the cleaning products on the store shelves.

My mother came over one day to help me take out all of the carpets for him, and we needed to clean the floor, she looked at all the bottles and picked every one of them up and threw them in the dump! She saved 4 bottles with spray tops, rinsed them out well. She then went to the baking cupboard took out the bottle of vinegar and the box of baking soda, handed them to me and said now clean the floor, smiling and shaking her head in wonder.

Hows that for a gently tap up side the head! Meaning “Hello, what are you thinking?” She also told me stop waisting your hard earned money on store bought junk and clean the house the way I had been taught and the way we always had done it.

Fast forward to today and I only venture into the unnatural smelling cleaning isle of the grocery store to buy 4, yes FOUR things. Washing Soda, Borax, amonia and plain old steel wool pads.

 

My basic whole house cleaning ingredients:

 

Washing Soda: also called sodium carbonate or soda ash, is made from common salt and limestone or found as natural deposits. You can check for yourself at Skin Deep and at Green Foot Steps. Washing soda is different from baking soda. Washing soda is found in the cleaning isle of many grocery and department stores. You can also order it on line from Arm and Hammer.

Borax: Is also called sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, disodium tetraborate. It is a naturally occurring mineral composed of sodium, boron, oxygen, and water. You can find 20 Mule Team Borax in the laundry section of the grocery store. Borax is an ingredient in Mrs. Myer’s and Seventh Generation laundry products and many other brands. Here is the information on its safety: Skin Deep, About.com, and Greenfootsteps.

Grated soap:  This will depend on what brand and kind you choose to use. I have used Ivory in the past with good results but lately I LOVE Kirk’s Castile  soap and Dr. Bronner’s liquid Castile Soap. I buy the bars found in the health and beauty section of the store. I have also seen both at our local health food store but the cost is better from the grocery store. I use my cheese grater to grate the bar of soap. I have seem many suggestions to use Fels Naptha, this soap has petroleum in it and not choice for my family.

One question I always get when I mention using my kitchen utensils in cleaning product making is the wonder if it is safe to use for food preparation again. My answer is this, the products are safe so yes with a good washing with soap and hot water cleans them good as new. Grating soap with the cheese grater, well it’s soap, natural soap how could that be bad? What do you wash your dishes with?

Vinegar: Is a food and has so many wonderful uses it could take several posts to discuss all of them. I typically use the less expensive white vinegar and buy it at the grocery store in gallon bottles. It also is usually on sale only once a year, in the fall around here for canning season. I am known to buy 20+ gallons when it is on sale.

Baking Soda:  Another food and also has so many uses. I look for this on sale year round. I will buy the biggest boxes I can once I check the unit price per pound and so far have always found the larger boxes to be the better buy for my money. One thought, the cost of these from the warehouse stores is NOT a better deal than buying one pound boxes off the grocery shelf. I can find it on sale just after the holiday season.

Ammonia: This can be a tricky one for me. While it is one of the harsher ingredients I use I find it very useful in small amounts and it is a natural ingredient found in nature. There is some information here about it. I only use it in a very diluted form, and NEVER, NEVER mix it any thing other than clean water. This is for tough and hard to clean jobs. Ammonia I buy at the hardware store. It is also in the cleaning isle of the grocery but more expensive there.

Salt: well it’s salt. It is a good abrasive for hard to clean areas that need a good scrubbing but I use baking soda first as it’s also an abrasive only less harsh.

Essential Oils: These are usually organic and always natural. I don’t use synthetic essential oils. They are to add a nice fragrance to the cleaning supplies, but oils like lemon, grapefruit, lavender, pepermint and Tea Tree also have their own beneficial properties. I purchase my oils from Oils By Nature, Mountain Rose Herbs, and Wholesale Supply. I would like to mention that essential oils are not the same as fragrance oils. Essential oils are made from a plant and fragrance oils most times are synthetic, chemicals.

 

Liquid Laundry Soap

 

• 1/2 bar Kirk’s Castile Soap, grated fine
• 1/2 cup Washing Soda-Sodium Carbonate- (not baking soda)
• 1/2 cup Borax
• 1 oz. lavender essential oil (or your favorite scent)
• 5 gallon bucket with lid

Using a cheese grater, the larger hole side grate, your bar soap.

In a pot add 4 cups of water and grated soap and heat to a boil, continue until soap is melted. to this add the washing soda and borax, continue to stir until dissolved well and remove from heat and pour into your bucket.

Add 4 cups HOT water into the bucket and stir until everything is mixed well. Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups cold water and stir, stir in essential oil well, cover bucket and let sit 24 hours.

In 24 hours remove cover and your soap should be a thin gel. Use 1/2 cup per load to wash. Stir each time before using. Store covered.

I use a downy fabric softener ball with white vinegar for the rinse cycle.

 

Note:

 

We have a septic system and powderd soaps in general aren’t good for it. The original recipe called for soap flakes but here in the US soap flakes are not easily available. There are other recipes that call for Fels Naptha soap, but this has petroleum in it, so I choose to use pure castile soap. If I made my own home made soap I would use the soap scraps from that.

Powdered Laundry Soap

Small batch

This recipe works well for front loading machines.

• ½ cup Borax
• ½ cup Washing Soda
• ½ bar of grated Castile soap, grated fine
• 8 drops of lavender essential oil or your favorite scent

Grate the bar of soap using a cheese grater, grate as small as possible. I have used the large holes in the grater and processed it further in my blender. Worked great.

Mix the soap, Borax, and Washing Soda together in a sealed container.

Sprinkle a few drops of essential oil on top of mixture, recover and shake. Continue until you like the smell. For this size batch I wouldn’t use much more than 8 drops. You aren’t going to get a stronger scent so it will waste your oils.

Use 2 tablespoons per load. For extra large loads or really dirty loads use 3 tablespoons.

Now for Q & A time

Q: should my batch of liquid laundry soap be gloppy and gel like? What did I do wrong?

A: You did perfect, this will gel a bit. A quick stir before using is all that is needed.

Q: Can I use either of these recipes in my front load washer?

A: The quick answer is yes you can. Neither of these will produce very many suds. But we all know it’s not the suds that does the cleaning. Commercial products have ingredients added to make the suds. It’s the soap that does the cleaning and the Borax and Washing Soda that help the soap clean better.

I have many tell me the powder works just perfect in their new energy efficient front load washers.

Q: Is it really a cost savings compared to the store bought when on sale.

A: Yes it is. I haven’t done the math lately but it’s about 10¢ a load. What is the cost of commercial soap per load when it’s on sale?

Q:How does this recipe work compared to others on the Internet?

A: I guess I don’t really know, I have never tried the others. If you do I would love the hear about it and what you decide.

If you have other questions I would be happy to try and answer them for you.

Homemade liquid dish soap

 

As part of my holiday gift giving I am making natural homemade dish soap. I have been making this recipe for a while now and really like it. I have never tried it with the vinegar because I like the lemon scent it has.

Here is the basic recipe:

Liquid Dish Soap

1 gallon of warm water

2 cups shredded bar soap (I use Ivory)

Large pot

2 Tbl. liquid glycerin

½ cup lemon juice

2-5 drops essential oil (I like eucalyptus)

5 drops tea tree oil (Antibacterial)

• Mix warm water and soap flakes in a large pot.
• Dissolve the soap flakes in the water on the stove over low heat. Continually stir the mix while it is heating.
• Stir in the glycerin and remove from heat.
• Let cool until almost room temperature.
• then add lemon juice (or white vinegar).
• Mix in your favorite essential oil and tea tree oil.
• Pour the mixture into bottles and shake well.

But anyone that knows me knows that I can’t leave things alone and am always looking to make things easier. Here is how I make mine:

• I have a large plastic juice container I use and this is the amount of water I use. I pour hot water into my pot and turn it on high to heat up.
• While it’s heating I grate 1 bar of castile soap and put it in the pot. Stir often to melt soap into water.
• Once it’s melted I turn off the heat and add the liquid glycerin and let it cool to room temperature.

Then add:

• 1/2 cup lemon juice and essential oils, plus the tea tree oil.
• Stir well and pour back into my bottle.

These are the jars I’m using for Christmas. I will cover them with a pretty piece of fabric and lace and tie on the dish cloths.

 

4/09 Update:

 

Since I first posted this I have received several questions about the liquid being on the thin/runny side. Yes, this is much thinner than a store bought variety. I find that it still works very well and I usually use about 1/2-3/4 of a cup per sink of water. Mine lasts about 1 week, we do a lot of dishes here. If let set much longer than that it will start to become moldy. It’s because of the water and lemon juice going bad. Water and lemon do grow bacteria!

I also only use enough water to fill the container I use to store the soap in, not as much as the recipe calls for.

You can also find my other homemade cleaning recipes I use every day here Under Natural Cleaning Supplies.

 

10/09 Update:

 

Well it’s been another few months and I am still loving this dish soap recipe. The one change I have made is I am now using liquid Castile Soap, I am finally able to purchase it locally, yeah!

 

I have been adding about 1/2 cup to the recipe and leaving out the grated soap. It is working like a charm….

 

Thought you all would like to know.