Bradley Brights

There are a hundred other things I need to be doing right now, but for the past four laundry days (which is every Monday) I've wanted to tell you all about my new adventure. Yes, I have a new laundry adventure. Here it is, I've made my own detergent and it works surprisingly well! I got the recipe from a friend of a friend who makes her own because her daughters are allergic to the dye in detergents. What sold me was she also added that this homemade soap only costs a penny a load. As a stay-at-home mom I'm always looking for ways to cut back on the budget and buying laundry soap was something I absolutely hated doing. A penny a load sounded great to me. I was skeptical but I thought I would give it a try. I mean, why not? It took a full day to make (mostly just stirring once an hour until it cooled). But, it works just as well if not better than the Tide that I was buying. If it were a miracle stain remover, I'd keep this secret to myself (or rather the friend of a friend would have) and sell it to make millions; but it's not. It does get a great majority of the stains out and my clothes are clean. The nasty ones usually come out on a second wash with a little stain remover on it. I'm sold and I think I'll be making my own detergent from now on (the batch is supposed to last about 6 months, so it's not like I'll be making it every week and it's a pretty easy recipe).

Maybe you're all thinking what a weirdo! But, here's the point I really wanted to share with you. Even if you don't want to convert you should keep the ingredients around with your food storage. If it came to it and you needed to live off of your food storage, wouldn't it be nice to not have to spend a fortune on laundry soap too? And at the same time get some good working stuff? That's something I never had thought of, to keep laundry soap in your emergency supply. Always be prepared.

Here's the recipe, write it down, buy the stuff and use it or store it away:

Laundry Soap

1 bar Zoat Soap or Fels Naptha (I used Fels Naptha)
1 1/2 c. Arm and Hammer washing soda
1 1/2 c. Twenty Mule Team Borax
Lots of Water

Heat 12 cups of water in a large pot. Grate Zoat soap and add to water. Stir until soap melts. Add washing soda and Borax- ingredients will foam, stir until everything is dissolved (5 minutes or so). Remove from heat.
Heat 8 cups of water in microwave (do this as soap is dissolving in water on stove) and place in 5 gallon bucket, add soap mixture and stir. Add 2 gallons plus 12 cups water and stir. You may add 1-2 oz of essential oil for a scent.
You will need to stir this every few hours so it doesn't all turn into on big gel blob. Use 1/2 cup of soap per load. Detergent will not be sudsy in washing machine. (I cleaned out and refilled my tide bottles for easy pouring. The regular size cap is 1/2 cup when full too.)

Happy Washing!