Going a Little Green!

 I've been hearing about homemade laundry detergent lately.   I have a few friends who have made it. Some have made liquid and others dry detergent.

I had the ingredients on hand to make the dry:

1 bar Ivory Soap (or Fels Naptha), grated

1 cup Borax

2 cups baking soda.

(the recipe calls for washing soda (use gloves) but I had baking soda here. I had the family size. See one of my original posts re 'burning down the house.))

I picked up a used cheese grater at the thrift store yesterday for grating the soap. I thought it would be harder than it was to remove the soap off the grater. It was easy w/ a brush.

Anyway, I grated the Ivory Soap Bar into an old candy bucket.  

 

  Looks like coconut, no?

Then I added the Borax and baking soda.

  

Then I mixed it up well!

  

Wouldn't you know it? All my laundry was caught up. How often does that happen?

Anyway, I scrounged up some socks, underwear, and a few t-shirts for my 'experiment'!

I added 2 scoops of detergent. Each scoop measures approximately 1 1/2 TBSP of detergent.

  

2 scoops! No candy!

  

The hard part about this is that the detergent doesn't produce suds, probably because there is no phosphate. I read that most detergents that advertise 'Phosphate Free' actually substitute something I can't pronounce instead. It's called nitrioltriacetic acid (NTA), which is actually carcinogenic in small amounts. Can you imagine big amounts? 

I feel like I defeated my purpose of saving money. I usually do not wash such a small load, and on hot. Yikes. But... I had to have a picture of it washing!  It's all in the name of science! You can see the dirty water. Hey - I have 4 boys, what do you expect?  

I will let you know how it performs and how long it lasts. I know it's cheaper than Era or Gain!

** UPDATE 4/4/11**
I love the soap! It seems to get everything clean and it and the clothes smell fresh! I even scored a bottle of the liquid last week and I like that a lot too!  I am making another batch of dry, as I ran out this morning. This time I am using the Fels Naptha soap and Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (both available at Smiths in the laundry/softener aisle).  The Fels Naptha is harder to grate, took about 10 minutes longer to do so, but it smells good.