Laundry Detergent for a Year

Last year a friend gave me a wonderful Christmas gift bag filled with homemade items.  One item was a small jar of homemade laundry detergent that I used within a month.  I thought it worked great so I mixed up a batch that lasted me a whole year.  It was a bargain at $35 (cost was the same this year), plus I felt like I wasn't damaging my washing machine (I guess that is one of the main problems - people use too much detergent).  With this recipe you only need 1 Tablespoon, sometimes I add a bit more if the clothes are extra dirty or if it's a XL load.

Recipe (all ingredients can be found on the cleaning isle at Walmart):
4 lb box of Borax
3 lb 7 oz  box of Washing Soda
3 Fels Naptha bars grated finely (cheese grater works great)
2 lb. baking soda
83 oz Purex Fabric Softener Crystals (which equals one large and one smaller bottle)
3 lb. oxyclean

This fits in a 3 gallon bucket (I think - I know my bucket is smaller than a 5 gallon).  I write the recipe on the lid of the bucket with a permanent marker along with the date that I made it so I know how long it lasts.

Laundry Detergent Recipe

One of Olivia's friend's mother gave our family a fabulous Christmas gift, it was a gift bag full of homemade items and their recipes.  I particularly loved the homemade laundry soap.

I quickly used all the laundry soap so I decided to make some more. I have made laundry soap in the past, but I liked this recipe better because it has a couple extra cleaning ingredients.

Laundry Detergent Recipe
1 (4 lb 12 oz) box Borax
1 (3 lb 7 oz.) Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 (3 lb.) Oxyclean
3 (5 1/2 oz.) Fels Naptha bars (grated)
1 (2 lb.) Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
83 oz. Purex Crystals Fabric Softener (I used the lavendar scented crystals)

Mix all ingredients together in a kitchen trash bag until thoroughly mixed.  Pour into desired container.

Use 1 Tablespoon detergent per wash.

This batch will make approximately 535 loads, which equals about 6 1/2 cents per load of laundry!

Tiff's notes:

• I bought all my recipe ingredients at Walmart and the total came to $35.00 (tax included) - that is the price of using no coupons and no specials sales.  I just went one day and bought all my supplies.

• I actually used my Vitamixer to help blend the grated Fels Naptha bars into smaller pieces.

• I store my laundry detergent in a 3 gallon bucket (an old frosting bucket that I got years ago from  bakery) with the recipe written on the lid.  

• I keep a small jar of detergent by my washer and refill it when needed.  It has a small cup inside that measures the 1 TB.

Time to Clean out the Fridge

I've been stuffing the fridge for the past several weeks so today was the day to clean it out!  I just hate seeing how much food that I have to throw out because it goes bad.  Deseret News had an interesting article back in June 2012 about this "food money pit", which suggestions that we waste 14% of our food purchases (read a segment below).  The article gives suggestions of ways to cut how much we waste.  Today I saved some food by giving it a new life in the freezer. 

I learned that I can freeze jalapenos, fresh ginger root, tomatillos, and spinach (which usually goes rotten in the fridge).  I put together several freezer bags with ingredients for green smoothies!  Now instead of finding these items stuck in the back of my fridge rotting, I can find them fresh and preserved in the freezer. 

From the article:  "Food waste costs each family in America big time — growing by 50 percent since 1974 according to a study inPLoS ONE by Kevin D. Hall, Juen Guo, Michael Dore, and Carson C. Chow.

And how much is being wasted?

A 2004 study by Timothy W. Jones, who was an anthropologist at the University of Arizona at the time, put the national food waste figure (including all the food wasted in production, food manufacturing, restaurants, etc.) between 40 and 50 percent. He found households waste 14 percent of their food purchases.

American households spent an average of $6,129 on food in 2010 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. If Jones' figure of 14 percent waste is correct, that is about $858 per year or about $71 a month wasted on food thrown out. Some food waste experts say the food waste figure is as high as 25 percent or about $1,532 a year."

Homemade Laundry Detergent

On Sunday during Relief Society, our provident living specialist shared a little tip on making your own laundry detergent.  She gave us each a one-load sample with the recipe, which was really thoughtful of her.  I then remembered that Tonya (my TX sis) makes her own and has for a year at least.  So I got excited to give it a try.

After buying all the ingredients yesterday, I whipped up a quadruple batch this morning.  I figured that it costs $0.09 per load (2 Tablespoons).  This amount equaled 13 cups of detergent, which equals 104 loads...and it all fit in a #10 can.

Here is the recipe (click here for a visual tutorial with a cute label to print)

Ingredients:
1 bar Fels-Naptha bar soap
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1/4 cup Baking Soda

*All of these items are found in the laundry isle next to the laundry detergents.  If you live in Utah -- I had best luck at Winco for all the supplies, I was not able to find the Fels-Naptha soap or washing soda at the Walmart or Target in my area, but you may have better luck.

*If you try this recipe and like it, you can double or even triple the ingredients the next time you make it to get a larger batch.