Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Two Years Later....

I am happy to report that after two years solid of using my homemade laundry soap that it is the best!  

I have found that the soap lasts about 3 - 4 months with me doing our laundry and my son and his wife's laundry.  My son's laundry comes to approximately 7 loads a week and ours to maybe 10 loads give and take.  I use 2 tablespoons of the soap per load - never more.  I learned the hard way that using too much soap in your wash will leave spots on colored clothes.  

I made a bucket of this soap for my daughter, Kym, who has 3 kids and she said it lasted about 5 months using 1 tablespoon of the soap per washer load and she felt her clothes came out feeling clean and smelling fresh even just using 1 scoop of soap.


I have perfected the laundry soap recipe to using 1 bar of Fels Naptha soap and 1 bar of Lirio soap, a brand I buy at the 99c store.  The Lirio soap comes in a 14.1 ounce bar and several colors/scents.  I use the pink one that smells like a bouquet of flowers.  It holds it's scent until the last of the soap is gone from the bucket.

It now only takes me about 15 - 20 minutes to make a bucket of soap.  I still grate the 2 bars of soap by hand with an old cheese grater.  I also now wear latex gloves when I make the soap and still wash my hands and arms when done.

The other ingredients in the soap has stayed the same: about a 4 pound box of Borax, almost 4 pound box of washing soda and 4 pounds of baking soda.

Other than the Lirio soap that I buy at the 99c store, all the other ingredients I can get at Walmart or Target.  The cost is about $12 for everything.

My towels I dry in the dryer, but all our other clothes and linens I hang on the line to dry.  As soon as I get my husband to string more clotheslines on the poles, I will be drying all our wash outside.  I love the smell of the clean clothes when I bring them inside.  

And nothing is as heavenly as sleeping between sheets, blankets and quilts at night that smell like sunshine.

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