Thoughts on Homemade Laundry Soap -- Part 1

Hey everyone I hope you had an awesome Memorial Day Weekend! It was a fun one for me.  I have some pictures to share and can't wait to get a post written up.  Watch for it in a couple days!   I've been working on a reasonable laundry soap for small loads and I think I have found something I like.  Here's part 1.  I will share part 2 tomorrow.

Doing small loads of laundry in my wonder washer doesn't require a whole lot of laundry soap per load.  A "load" usually consists of a couple t-shirts, or one pair of jeans.  It would be major overkill using the regular amount of laundry soap you normally would use.  Even for a regular size washer some laundry soap amounts I think are overkill.  I have discovered over the past few months it takes at the most, for a "load", 2 teaspoons of homemade powder laundry soap.  The homemade liquid I am currently trying out I use a little more than that, but I will explain in another post.  I haven't bought store bought commercial laundry soap since sometime last fall.  I do still have some, and it was given to my son.  I do still use it when I wash his clothes, and on very rare occasions on mine.  When I go to the laundromat (in another town) to wash blankets and coats I will use it as well. Some things I think are necessary in laundry soap:

• I do like bubbles!  To me that proves things are getting clean.  I know bubbles aren't necessary, but it's a visual thing for me.
• Smell. I want a nice smell to my clothes.  "Clean" is a smell, but sometimes I need a little more.
• My smell preference changes from time to time.  What and how I make my laundry soap with also changes with what smell I want.
• Something to help with the sweaty smell.  It is summer time now.  Just using something to "make bubbles" doesn't always help remove that smell.
• I like my clothes to smell like something after they are dry.

I had started out using just a grated bar of Zote laundry soap. It was amazing and I loved the smell.  I added a bit if store brand oxy-clean to the zote for extra cleaning.  It worked very well for me.  That lasted me about 2 months.  This didn't really create any bubbles, but by the way the clothes smelled and felt I could tell it was doing it's job.  The socks and underwear had a slight citronella smell, but it wasn't very noticeable.  (I was ok with this since I like the smell anyway) This was the first thing I used after stopping going to the laundromat every week.  I do still have a bar of Zote in the cupboard.  I will keep it as a back-up.

My next batch I wanted to try fels naptha. I love the smell if it also.  I tried it alone, and wasn't satisfied with how it, by it's self, cleaned.  I bought and mixed in some washing soda and borax along with some of the store brand oxy-clean.  This mixture was OK, but I stillwasn't totally satisfied.  It smelled good, but I didn't feel it cleaned my clothes as well as the Zote did.  This lasted me about a month and a half.  Absolutely no smell after they were dry.  This also didn't create bubbles, but I still had the same clean smell and feel to my clothes.

I'm always looking on pinterest and google searches and blogs for new ideas and easier ways or cheaper ways to do things.  Sometimes you hit on something really good, sometimes it's not so good.  I was wanting something besides the bar laundry soap.  The shaving pieces don't always dissolve all the way for me.  Sometimes if they got caught in the fold of the fabric they would still be somewhat whole.  Wasn't a big deal, but it just bothered me.  Not to mention having to grate the bar of laundry soap was time consuming.  Being a 2 full time business owner, time is something I don't have a lot of outside working.

I am happy to say I think I have finally come up with the perfect solution for me and my laundry. Come back tomorrow for part 2, and my current solution.