Herbal All-Natural Home Cleaning Series - Part 2 - Powdered Laundry Detergent

"She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple."
~ Proverbs 31:22 ~

I know that to many of you Momma's out there washing is probably the biggest chore you have, especially if you have a lot of littles running around changing their clothes needlessly or playing outside and getting them dirty. Many times at our house laundry piles up, even with just five adults. I also know that it can be costly to buy "nice" smelling detergent unless you can get just the right coupon at just the right time and just the right sale price too and even then it's still not what we'd like it to be.

How would you like to make your own laundry detergent? It's so easy that the children can help you put it together, yes, it's that easy. Plus it takes no time at all.

 What you will need:
- 4 bars Organic Castile Soap (preferably unscented)
- 1 78oz box Borax
- 1 55oz box Washing Soda
- 3 T. Lavender Essential Oil,
- Grater
- Measuring spoon or food processor
- Container to mix and keep detergent in
- Mixing spoon

Now, where can you find these products? Well, I make the organic Castile soap and I have linked it to my website, it is very cheap and it is all natural. Now, borax and washing soda can be found in the aisle of you local grocery store or supermarket, though at times it can be very hard to find, it seems they try to hide it from us. The essential oil I buy from beeyoutiful.com they are both pure and undiluted as well as cost effective, you'll need two bottles since 3 T equals 1.5 oz and these bottles are only one oz bottles.

How to make it:

1. Grate the castile soap, it's quite easy, just like cheese. Make sure the husband or children don't come through and grab a handful thinking it's cheese, they'll get a surprise. *If you aren't going to be using a food processor, it probably best to grate it as small as possible, so use the "fancy" cheese grater*

2. Measure and pour all ingredients into a food processor or container your going to be mixing in. Mix the ingredients really well. If using a food processor it's better to pulsate the mixer than to let it continuously run. If you're not using a food processor then this can take up to 15 min to mix, because we want to make sure the essential oil gets mixed throughout and doesn't stay in just one place.

3. Pour the mixture into an old laundry detergent box or a cheap Rubbermaid container with a lid.

4. Use your detergent. 2 Tablespoons of detergent per load. This recipe is safe for HE washers.

Cost:
Castile Soap $14
Borax approx. $5 (or less)
Washing Soda approx. $4 (or less)
Lavender Essential Oil $15.00

Total: $38

This will last up to 288 loads, therefore the cost of this product is: .13 a load, the cost of normal laundry detergent per load? Tide is approx. $17.97 for 143 oz and it is suppose to last up to 90 loads which makes it .19 a load. So you save .9c a load.

NOW, if you would like to make your loads even cheaper here are a few tips:


Think Ahead -  make sure you think ahead to the next time you're going to making laundry detergent, buy extra essential oils so that you will have to pay shipping one time (beeyoutiful's shipping is a flat rate so you will pay the same price if you buy 1 or 10).

 Choose Cheaper & More Effective Oils - instead of using Lavender oil (which is one of the more expensive oils) you could use a mix of Lemon and Lemongrass or Orange Oil, these are cheaper oils and they have extra cleaning power to clean your clothes!

Find A Cheaper Supplier - Try to see if you can find a supplier that sells borax and washing soda for a cheaper price than your local grocer, but remember, if your ordering online to add in the shipping cost.

Try a Different Product - if you want you can use Baking Soda in place of Washing Soda, I only recommend this if your clothes are not heavily soiled. Baking Soda works pretty well if your clothes don't have a lot of dirt on them.

Use Other Natural Products - To make washing your clothes even cheaper add 2 T. White Vinegar to your load for softening and extra cleaning power. This will not make your clothes smell like vinegar, but it makes them very soft.

Have FUN being all-natural and making your own

Laundry Detergent!!!