Blah blah who talks this much about laundry?!
I do, I suppose. If I were a man influencer or blogged for money, this is where I would add some swipe up feature to get kickbacks for affiliate links. But I have no readers any more (do I?), this blog is private, and I unfortunately missed the “make money to blog about how you do your life” influencer train. So I guess this long winded post about laundry is simply for posterity’s sake. And so I can refer back here for the recipe again in the future instead of searching Pinterest again for a recipe and reading through the laundry takes of some other, much smarter and probably richer mommy blogger out there. Might as well read my own story, right? Right. Dear Willy kids, I do a lot of laundry. Today we started making our own detergent again. Thank you, Sandy Wellesley for teaching me how at an enrichment meeting 8 years ago.
A house of 9 people requires 3 loads of laundry every day. I use a laundry schedule so I don’t fall behind. Otherwise it will bury me alive.
I’ve found that 1) washing the same items on certain days and 2) starting and switching loads at the same times of day help work massive amounts of laundry into a regular part of my routine. So instead of taking over my day, it’s just a quick 2 minutes here or 10 minutes there and it just gets done without being a nuisance. Like washing hands or brushing teeth. For example, I start a load every morning on my way out the door before I take Quincy to school. It’s just part of grabbing keys and shoes and coats and takes less than 2 minutes because I already know which load I’m going to do based on the day of the week so there’s no thinking about it. If it’s a teen’s day, they bring it down and start it. If it’s a little ones day, they bring it down put it in the washer and I add soap and start it. Machines do the work while I run my morning rounds because this is the 21st century. When I return from OT with the twins I move the load over and start load number 2. I put load 1 away during their lunchtime or once the littles settle for nap, and so on. Longer loads to put away that require hangers, towel folding, sheets on beds, etc are a treat because it’s when I listen to an audiobook. Big kids fold and put their own laundry away. For Littles I fold and they put away. It’s a beautifully working system.
I used to make all my own laundry soap. Some clothes I am picky about the detergent, and others (hello cleaning rags, pool towels, toddler clothes, and dish towels) I really don’t care. So I made this stuff with items I had on hand except the $1 zote bar, which I used only half of yesterday for 2 gallon size detergent refills. Not bad for 50 cents spent!
Ok here’s the basic recipe I tried this time. It varies each one I’ve tried. This one seems to be much more gelatinous than others I’ve used in the past. Not sure how I feel about that yet. Also note that I quadrupled it to refill these 2 huge containers.
Homemade Laundry Detergent (liquid)
1c grated laundry bar (zote or fels naphtha....this is my first time using zote. I don’t love the frangrance as much but it grated and dissolved MUCH more easily than fels naphtha)
Dissolve in a saucepan with 2c water
Then add
2T washing soda
2T borax
2T powdered TIDE (I use this for cleaning and I love the smell and the way my washer smells after using it.
And because I had some free samples 2 packs unstoppables laundry frangrance enhancers. (That’s why this batch is blue)
Once dissolved add 6c water and let cool completely before putting in containers. It really thickened up overnight.
I feel like even if I only use this stuff for 3-4 loads a week, it still saves me cash in the long run. There’s really no reason not to use it for everything other than brand loyalty. I’ll report back on how I like this recipe with the tide and zote in it.
