[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Washday: Making my own laundry soap ****Very Picture Heavy**** Updated. (Page 3 of 4)
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Yet another thread that I'm going to forward to my wife. A friend of ours does this, but my wife has been reluctant to try it. Good write-up and pics. sgt_seti ETA: I'm thinking that I'm lazy, so a food processor to grate the soap and drill-powered paint stirrer to mix in the bucket would be in order. I thought the same kitchen aid ..............whiiiiiirrrrrrrrrr..done! Hahaha damn guys. Grating the soap takes about .75 beers. Melting, mixing and measuring takes about 1.25 beers making this entire project a 2 beer project. Modify those ratios to your liking and instantly, you don't care that it takes 10 whole minutes 
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just made a batch................. lookin good! I've been using the stuff for a couple of months now, ever since I first saw this thread. It's awesome. Glad you guys are enjoying it. We finally made it through our 5gal bucket after 6ish months of use out of the same bucket. Not too bad at all. |
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Yet another thread that I'm going to forward to my wife. A friend of ours does this, but my wife has been reluctant to try it. Good write-up and pics. sgt_seti ETA: I'm thinking that I'm lazy, so a food processor to grate the soap and drill-powered paint stirrer to mix in the bucket would be in order. I thought the same kitchen aid ..............whiiiiiirrrrrrrrrr..done! Hahaha damn guys. Grating the soap takes about .75 beers. Melting, mixing and measuring takes about 1.25 beers making this entire project a 2 beer project. Modify those ratios to your liking and instantly, you don't care that it takes 10 whole minutes Going along with the beer / soap making connection..........most of my recent batch is contained within glass beer growlers from the local brewery................ 
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: just made a batch................. lookin good! I've been using the stuff for a couple of months now, ever since I first saw this thread. It's awesome. Glad you guys are enjoying it. We finally made it through our 5gal bucket after 6ish months of use out of the same bucket. Not too bad at all. Are you using this in a front loading washer? if not, any long term reports on front loaders? I don't want to kill my wife's (ridiculously) expensive washer to save a bit on soap. |
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just made a batch................. lookin good! I've been using the stuff for a couple of months now, ever since I first saw this thread. It's awesome. Glad you guys are enjoying it. We finally made it through our 5gal bucket after 6ish months of use out of the same bucket. Not too bad at all. Are you using this in a front loading washer? if not, any long term reports on front loaders? I don't want to kill my wife's (ridiculously) expensive washer to save a bit on soap. I will be tomorrow  I'll let ya know
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: just made a batch................. lookin good! I've been using the stuff for a couple of months now, ever since I first saw this thread. It's awesome. Glad you guys are enjoying it. We finally made it through our 5gal bucket after 6ish months of use out of the same bucket. Not too bad at all. Are you using this in a front loading washer? if not, any long term reports on front loaders? I don't want to kill my wife's (ridiculously) expensive washer to save a bit on soap. I will be tomorrow I'll let ya knowI don't have a front-loader myself, but I can report that this soap makes almost no suds, which is what you want in a front loader. |
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just made a batch................. lookin good! I've been using the stuff for a couple of months now, ever since I first saw this thread. It's awesome. Glad you guys are enjoying it. We finally made it through our 5gal bucket after 6ish months of use out of the same bucket. Not too bad at all. Are you using this in a front loading washer? if not, any long term reports on front loaders? I don't want to kill my wife's (ridiculously) expensive washer to save a bit on soap. I will be tomorrow I'll let ya knowI don't have a front-loader myself, but I can report that this soap makes almost no suds, which is what you want in a front loader. This. If you look through this thread a bit, you can see folks using front loading washing machines w/ no worries. No suds = good to go. |
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When I first mentioned this and mixed it up I caught a ton of shit from the wife and kids. I told her to try it, she wasn't out anything. It turns out that it works very well, is incredibly cheap and she has even mentioned this to friends and family. Turns out her mom remembers something similar years ago that her mother used to make. I really enjoy the $20/mo we save on soap. Thanks for the recipe.
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Quoted: This. If you look through this thread a bit, you can see folks using front loading washing machines w/ no worries. No suds = good to go. I must have missed this, browsing late at night, then posting in the morning.  I used to work on appliances, non-HE soap is bad juju, I will definitely give this a go! |
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Has anyone (besides me) actually done a side by side test? I've never seen one. Mine didn't work out too well, it was obvious which one was washed in real soap and which one not. I should have included a third control, one washed in plain water, just to see if there was any effect at all.
I add a cup of the stuff I made to my normal load, just to get rid of it. The fels naptha does work great on stains though. |
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Although I haven't done a side by side comparison, I have alternated soaps, homemade and store bought, between washes.
The homemade soap smelled "clean" but clothes were slightly more mottled in appearance. The store bought smelled like, well store bought laundry soap... It was uniform in appearance; I attribute that to the brighteners and UV stuff that are added to the store bought. I'll keep using the homemade soap; I like the lack of overpowering scents and don't mind not having the UV brightners. |
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Has anyone (besides me) actually done a side by side test? I've never seen one. Mine didn't work out too well, it was obvious which one was washed in real soap and which one not. I should have included a third control, one washed in plain water, just to see if there was any effect at all. I add a cup of the stuff I made to my normal load, just to get rid of it. The fels naptha does work great on stains though. I'll admit, Tide or similar seem to work a bit better, but this only seems to apply to the luster of clothing (i.e. colors, bright whites and so forth). When doing a load of whites, I like to add a bit of bleach. That said, this stuff is amazing on any stain I've ever come across. |
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Truth is, I've either done something wrong or it isn't working well for me. I wear a lot of polo style shirts and at least half have to be rewashed as there are massive dark spots on the shirts. I have to hit the spots with oxyclean AND some other stuff the get my shirts clean. |
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Quoted: Truth is, I've either done something wrong or it isn't working well for me. I wear a lot of polo style shirts and at least half have to be rewashed as there are massive dark spots on the shirts. I have to hit the spots with oxyclean AND some other stuff the get my shirts clean. Did they have dark spots going into the wash? Do you wash darks and lights together? |
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Quoted: Nope all bright colors and It doesn't seem the spots were there before the wash. I am prone to spots on ly shirt, but what I found was beyond my normal mess!!Quoted: Truth is, I've either done something wrong or it isn't working well for me. I wear a lot of polo style shirts and at least half have to be rewashed as there are massive dark spots on the shirts. I have to hit the spots with oxyclean AND some other stuff the get my shirts clean. Did they have dark spots going into the wash? Do you wash darks and lights together? |
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Nope all bright colors and It doesn't seem the spots were there before the wash. I am prone to spots on ly shirt, but what I found was beyond my normal mess!!
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Truth is, I've either done something wrong or it isn't working well for me. I wear a lot of polo style shirts and at least half have to be rewashed as there are massive dark spots on the shirts. I have to hit the spots with oxyclean AND some other stuff the get my shirts clean. Did they have dark spots going into the wash? Do you wash darks and lights together? I've had store bought soap do this, and I THINK that you can avoid it all together by waiting for the washer to be full of water before adding soap...since I've started this practice I haven't seen it happen anymore. All this is with store bought soap. I intend to make a batch of this stuff soon. I'll save my detergent bottles. |
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Yahoo finance even had an article this week about how making your own laundry soap saves money.
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/109349/do-it-yourself-laundry-detergent |
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Got some to mess with while I finish up the last of my store bought stuff and I plan to just fill the washer up with the cup o soap and let it fill with water before adding clothes. Even store bought soap can do spots on clothes, I get fewer of them once I read some directions and started putting the soap in first then the clothes and then turning on the washing machine. To some extent I think the dingy clothes comments are from not having the brighteners and stuff in the soap and I don't mind my clothes looking natural because most of what I wear is earth tones anyway and I don't want brighteners and what not. I still need to make a big batch of this stuff but playing around talking about it I ran into some folks who have some various versions they have tried and they all kind of wind up being the same. I really need it for getting out spots, used to be the old detergents handled spots great but these days a lot of my clothes wind up with grease spots not coming out and I just feel like today's detergents suck compared to what I had available, used em a decade ago but most were 2 decades old due to mom always buying on sale and keeping the pantry/storage under the stairs full. |
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If I can find the Fels Naptha, I would like to try this. Thanks.........good job. Should have it at Walmart or try a small Mom and Pope store! The Wash soda was the hardest thing for me to find! Also you can buy the Fels Naptha online! Its a great all around soap! |
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If I can find the Fels Naptha, I would like to try this. Thanks.........good job. Should have it at Walmart or try a small Mom and Pope store! The Wash soda was the hardest thing for me to find! Also you can buy the Fels Naptha online! Its a great all around soap! Wal-mart or heck, I bought mine at my local grocery store in their detergent section. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: If I can find the Fels Naptha, I would like to try this. Thanks.........good job. Should have it at Walmart or try a small Mom and Pope store! The Wash soda was the hardest thing for me to find! Also you can buy the Fels Naptha online! Its a great all around soap! Wal-mart or heck, I bought mine at my local grocery store in their detergent section. The Publix stores here both have all three ingredients, placed very close together. When I bought the stuff for my batch, the cashier even said, "Making your own detergent, huh?" |
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I washed some work pants and my work coat the other day. Both were pretty grungy after working on some cars in my garage. I did 4 brakes jobs and 1 gas tank job before taking these pics, so they were pretty bad. The jacket has about 8-10 years of working on cars embedded into it. Tide has done about the same in the past with these. These were the only items in the wash and a full cap full of soap was used. Using a H.E. Maytag washer by the way.
The flash of the camera makes it look worse than they are. Before: 
After: 
The knees were really bad before, even when Tide was used last time I washed them. I haven't has a chance to get any to some of the family yet, but I'm sold on this. |
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They look just as bad after!!!! Trust me, its a lot better in person. You also have to remember that is after working on 5 different cars over the course of 3 days. I have done a regular load of laundry and the jeans came out better looking then Tide has ever gotten them, but I didn't take any pics of them. The rest of the laundry looked the same as before. The wife has super sensitive skin also, and hasn't had any problems either so far, but it's only been 1 load... |
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They look just as bad after!!!! Trust me, its a lot better in person. You also have to remember that is after working on 5 different cars over the course of 3 days. I have done a regular load of laundry and the jeans came out better looking then Tide has ever gotten them, but I didn't take any pics of them. The rest of the laundry looked the same as before. The wife has super sensitive skin also, and hasn't had any problems either so far, but it's only been 1 load... I doubt she will. The detergent has no fragrances which seem to give people the most issues with their skin. I made a batch for an old friend of mine who has sensitive skin and he's reported no issues in 3mo. |
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I made a batch up last month.I used/added a half gallon of Tide to give it a little "fresh" smelling fragrance after washing.
(I live in a house full of women )If you fill/mix it in a clear jug it looks SO cool!Its like a green lava lamb with pearl stringers running through it....
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I found the washing soda here for $2.99 w/ free shipping, they have some other real nice deals as well. Arm and Hammer Washing soda
Walmart has the 76 oz. Borax for $2.98 Still looking locally for the fels-naptha, cheapest place I found online was $1.49 per bar here. Soaps gone buy . 7 bars with shipping is $16.38 ETA: Soaps gone buy also has kits with pre grated fels-naptha for you lazy mofos for $26.95 ETA2: Ace hardware had the Fels-Naptha bars for $1.29, they also have the Borax ($3.29) and washing soda ($3.79) |
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Local Meijer has all three ingredients and soaps gone buy website has recipes and ingredients for sale.
I find that FREEZING the fels naptha bar before grating helps when breaking it up into the fine powder(otherwise it is like strands of grated cheese and sticks together when trying to brake up by hand grinding it into a powder) . For grease stains don't forget that you can use fast orange or other hand cleaners and wet the clothes then rub it in well to the stain before washing (read the back of the container for directions). We use the dry recipe of homemade laundry soap and plan on giving the liquid a try. The Wife likes it and so do I, our youngest has reactions to some store bought and has no reaction to this. Stains are just that - stains! Even the store bought detergents won't get them out without a pretreatment of some kind. We have a High Efficiency new washer with zero problems. I talked to my Dad about this stuff and he told me my Grandmother used this stuff on the clothes she washed BY HAND !!!!! Saves money too. More money saved = more money for preps. EDIT- Lots of other uses on www.soapsgonebuy.com Even 100 year old catfish bait mixture? no recipe for this but they sell it. Might have to try that. |
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I've been trying this stuff out and, at first, it was fine. Clothes came out clean and didn't smell. Now that I've washed some clothes that were actually dirty instead of clothes that had just been worn around for a day - my results haven't been that great.
So far it has failed to work on grass, dirt, and blood stains. I can't imagine how I could have screwed up making it. Anyone ideas? |
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Made my 1st batch up yesterday. This is too easy to not do!
I got 2 cases of Fels-Naptha-Soap from ACE Hardware. I had to order it though. The borax I found at Wal-Mart. The Super Washing Soda, at my local Weis store. I figure my cost for the 1st batch at about $3.00 for 10 gallons. The wife usually buys a generic liquid for 3.00 for a 76oz bottle, or roughly $50.00 for the same amount. Savings about $47.00 plus the convenience of always having it on hand. It seems Ace Hardware has one of the best prices I've seen reported here. I paid $30.52 + %6 tax for a case. |
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We have family that live with us, they, and me, we all use this soap. The Mrs. refused, because it "isn't Tide." Today I was told my soap is acceptable, it seems we ran out of Tide last week Has anyone added downy/white vinegar etc... for more fabric-softyness? |
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I've been trying this stuff out and, at first, it was fine. Clothes came out clean and didn't smell. Now that I've washed some clothes that were actually dirty instead of clothes that had just been worn around for a day - my results haven't been that great. So far it has failed to work on grass, dirt, and blood stains. I can't imagine how I could have screwed up making it. Anyone ideas? I used it to remove a month-old chocolate stain from a pink sweater vest of my wife's. Worked great. Perhaps it is time to have a textiles engineer come into this thread and explain why certain soaps/detergents work on certain stains on certain kinds of fabric? |
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I want to say the grass and bloodstains fall into similar problem chemical areas based on old stain fighting commercials. Protein maybe? Hydrogen peroxide can remove blood I think, going to have to check for color fastness first I bet. I wound up with a tub of the oxy-clean powder and plan to use it if I don't like how the home made stuff does. Still need to finish up some powder tide I got nice and cheap first though. |
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I finally ran out of my second (or was it third?) batch.
Exactly 9-months to the day for a 5-gallon bucket's worth. I made this recent batch on July 3, 2010, and ran out today (April 3, 2011). Guess it is time to make another batch! I love saving money... 
Every time I go to the store and pass laundry detergent selling for $10+ per bottle I just shake my head and think about all the money I've saved since I started making this stuff. I believe we've only bought one bottle of Woolite (at my wife's request for some of her more delicate clothes) in the past 2ish years. |