Homemade Laundry Cream

I have been wanting to try some homemade laundry detergents for quite awhile now.

I found this recipe at A Quiver Full of Blessings and was out of laundry detergent,

 so it was time!

Ingredients:

• 6 Cups of water
• 2 Cups of Borax
• 2 Cups of Washing Soda
• 2 bars of Fels-Naptha soap

Grate both bars of soap and pour into boiling water. Once the soap is dissolved, add in the Borax and the Washing Soda. Cook for about 3 minutes and then pour into clean mason jars.
I would recommend using a funnel for this part. *wink*
My counters got a little soapy until I got smart and funneled up.

Let the soap mixture sit for 8 or so hours. You can’t see in this photo, but there is a liquid on the bottom and the top part is all crusty.

Here you can see the crustiness.

After it has sat for the 8 hours or so, put the soap (one jar at a time) into a blender to make it into the “cream” consistency that we are going for. I could just tell you that this part was so simple, but since lying is against my religion I will tell you the truth.

It was messy.

I first put it in my blender and nothing got blended. It just sat there mocking me.

My husband thinks I don’t know how to use a blender…I just think every blender we have owned is defective and out to get me.

Then I took it out and tried using a hand mixer.

That got it more broken up, but not so much the “creamy” I was going for.

After that I pulled out the Magic Bullet and finally got the results that I wanted!

I just had to do it in small increments.

NOTE:While blending you will need to add more water to get it to cream.

Just eyeball it.

Here is my finished detergent. Notice that there is more than in the photos above?

That’s what happens when you add a little more water and blend it up.

Notice the lovely butter-like creamy consistency? Uh-huh!

Okay, so now let’s talk about the soap:

I love it! I have a front loading HE washer and it works GREAT! I have been using this for 2 weeks now and use 1 Tablespoon per load. I have a family of four,so we do tons of laundry, and I just finished the SMALL jar of soap. I set my soap dispenser to the “liquid soap” mode.

My husband had a pomegranate explode on his favorite t-shirt and this stuff got it right out, no pre treating needed. I was shocked! If you have ever tried to get that juice out of your clothes, you know what I am talking about.

When this is gone I am planning to try a liquid version and then a powder one to see which one I like best. I will keep y’all posted!

~Amy~

Linking up with some of these blogs:

Fingerprints on the Fridge, Making The World Cuter, Dittle Dattle, Mad Skills Monday, Skip to my Lou, Craft O Maniac, Delicate Construction, Ask Anna, New Nostalgia, House of Grace, Sassy Sites, Not Just a Housewife, Today's Creative Blog, My Craftie Life, Sew Much Ado, Seven Thirty-Three, Someday Crafts, A Diamond in the Stuff, My Girlish Whims, Somewhat Simple, Momnivores Dilemma, Paisley Passions, Fun to Craft, Make it, Wear it, Gluesticks, House of Hepworths, What Allie's Making Now, Finding Fabulous, A Little Knick Knack, Mommas Kinda Crafty, Its a Hodgepodge Life, Inspiring Creations, Be Different Act Normal, Wildflowers and Whimsy, Tatertots and Jello, The Idea Room, My Repurposed Life, Sew Many Ways, I Heart Naptime, Thirty Handmade Days, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Itch, Oops I Craft My Pants, Addicted 2 Decorating

SOAP

This laundry soap is amazing!

I have tried several different kinds of detergents for washing my cloth diapers and they were always left with residual "smells"(If you use cloth diapers, you know what I am talking about).

After one wash with this stuff, the smell was gone! I sound so lame, but it's true. This soap has changed my cloth-diaper-life. It is Nellie's all natural laundry soda and you can get it here on their website(which is a really fun site), but I get it from Cottonbabies because there is NO shipping! Yay!

I got it to use on my diapers and now I use it on all of our laundry...our clothes just feel cleaner now.

Here is the back of the package: Isn't it so much fun?

And here is a closer view of the comic:

Even though I love the packaging, I do not like to unzip and zip the, uh, zipper on the bag each time I do a load of laundry. 

To fix that, I took a glass cracker jar that I got at Target(favorite store!) and covered the sides with scrapbook paper and epoxy letters to spell out "SOAP". I added a paper flower to the top and some ribbons around the neck of the jar to pretty it up.

I love it, don't you? It just makes me smile:)

Anything to make doing laundry a little more pleasant, right?