The Never-ending Menace of a Mother

Or anyone for that matter: laundry. It has to be done, and you need a cleaning agent to do it.

Some time last year, my MIL and I were talking about the prices of laundry detergent, and the strong perfumes and dyes in the detergents. We both have to pay close attention to perfumes and dyes in detergents. My FIL has very sensitive skin, so there are only a handful of detergents that can be used for him. I use cloth diapers, and perfumes and dyes can clog up the fabric, irritating the baby's skin as well as making the diapers less absorbent.

In an effort to save money and use less chemicals on our clothes (and consequently, our skin), I began looking into home-made detergent options. I found this website. Not only are there several detergent recipes to choose from, but there is a pretty exhaustive FAQ's section that was complied in response to the questions generated by the detergent recipes.

I went with Recipe #1:

1 quart boiling water

2 cups or 1 bar grated bar soap (A regular cheese grater works great. No pun intended!)

2 cups Borax

2 cups Washing soda

Add the grated soap to the boiling water and stir over low heat until dissolved.

In a large bucket (with lid) combine water/soap mixture with the Borax and Washing Soda, stirring until dissolved.

Add 2 gallons of water and mix well.

Keep covered, stir before each use (it will gel). Use about a 1/4 cup per load.

I chose to use Ivory soap rather then Fels Naptha (which is what a lot of people use) for the grated bar soap because that is what I had on hand the first time. I am glad I did, for one thing Ivory does have a slight scent, which is nice, but not heavy, and for the other thing it is very gentle on the skin, more so than Fels Naptha, I believe.

I am currently on my second bucket of this detergent and we have been very happy with it. Our laundry comes out clean and fresh smelling. Once in awhile I do still use a little bleach, particularly with the whites. I also use white vinegar in the rinse cycle for the diapers to help break up any soap residue.

I have been asked by a few different people about the price difference. I knew before starting this venture that the home-made detergent would be cheaper, but I never ran any numbers until now. It seemed a good thing to include in this post. :)

Here are the three main detergents I previously used:

Dreft 100 oz. (64 loads) $15.97

Tide 150 oz. (96 loads) $17.50

All Free and Clear 150 oz. (96 loads) $10.97

(Prices and images from Walmart.com)

For the home-made detergent:

One box each of Borax and Washing Soda totaled $7.50. I will get four or five batches of detergent out of each box. Let's say four batches, that's $1.87.

The Ivory soap is about $0.38/bar ($3.76 for a pack of ten).

That puts one batch of detergent at approximately 144 loads and costs around $2.25 (+a little time and water). That looks like a savings to me!

Of course, laundry still can be a menace even when you have cheap detergent.

I have finally found a system that seems to work for me. Instead of doing laundry when it gets piled up, I stick to a weekly rotation: colors on Monday, darks on Wednesday, and whites on Friday. Diapers get washed whenever we run low. This means that I have a load or two that I do each of those days, but it ensures that each pile gets done once a week, so we don't run out of anything. It also makes laundry folding a more manageable job.

Once the laundry is folded I have the boys put away most of it, their own laundry, as well as all the linens. They love it, so it isn't really even viewed as a "chore."