Can we talk about homemade things?

[Nursingnaturalmom]

Like Laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent? We have a big family and laundry is never ending. I love the idea of making my own. We have well water with a filter and a front loader.
If you make your own does powder or liquid work better? Does it really matter? I am curious to know about keeping whites white? I'm not a fan of fels naptha, so I'd probably use kirks castille or ivory. My kids have sensitive skin (eczema) so thats a thought too. We also have diapers to wash.

What do you use for your dishwasher?

[iowaorganic]

I make my own laundry. My dry mix is 1/3 borax, 1/3 washing soda, and 1/3 oxyclean. I use about 2T/load with a little grated bar soap- I like the fels naptha though. For diapers I just use the dry with a titch of bleach. Works well with our well water. I am not really brave enough for whites. We wear mostly darks. Our water is way to limey and rusty to even attempt.

[justmama]

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/...-visual-guide/

That's the recipe I use. I just googled homemade laundry detergent and that one looked simple and had pictures. It really is simple. I use whatever soap is on sale at whole foods or target, depending on what I'm shopping for. If I am given some handsoap for whatever reason we could use that too. I find that the soap really doesn't matter. It works quite nicely, combined with some oxyclean for the really filthy clothing. I also have a front loader and haven't had any problems. I do NOT use it for our cloth diapers though because I haven't had luck using anything other than Tide HE and I don't want to shake things up and have problems. But we only wash a load of diapers every 3 days because everyone is using the toilet during the day now so it's not a big deal. We'll finish the bottle of Tide most likely and then go to all homemade detergent. I keep my detergent in an old diaper pail with a push-button lid and use a premarked single-serve yogurt container to scoop out the appropriate amt and put it in the machine. Oh and if it matters, we wash only on cold and line dry.

[Tammy in Germany]

http://grocerycartchallenge.blogspot...ishwasher.html

This post might be what your looking for.

[linguistmama]

I just made this one with fels naptha, but you could use a different type of bar soap:
http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm
It works just as well as Tide on our clothes. We don't have well water so I'm not sure about keeping whites white. I'll be following along to see the ideas.

I actually tried 2 tbs of this in the dishwasher and it worked great! Just borax and washing soda left film even using vinegar in the rinse compartment. I would rather that something more benign like baking soda and vinegar worked, but they don't get my dishes very clean. I figure fels naptha can't be worse than cascade and it's way cheaper too!

[HappyHelpmate]

I use this recipe. It's from the Duggar's website.

"Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value
4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax
- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)
TIPS FOR LAUNDRY SOAP: We use Fels-Naptha bar soap in the homemade soap recipes, but you can use Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zote bars. Don't use heavily perfumed soaps. We buy Fels-Naptha by the case from our local grocer or online. Washing Soda and Borax can often be found on the laundry or cleaning aisle. Recipe cost approx. $2 per batch."

It works great for us. We use the Fels Naptha, but as it says you can use other soaps like Kirk's as you mentioned. It gets our diapers cleaner than All Free & Clear like we were using.

I have a friend who started using this, and they love it too. They tried it in their dishwasher with great results. I haven't tried the dishwasher yet just because I haven't run out of detergent (I go through ~1 box a year). We both have city water, so I don't know if it would be different with well water, but so far our whites are great! I still stain treat with shout, and I would use OxyClean on our whites if I think they're getting dingy, but I haven't had to.

[Gray's Mommy]

Originally Posted by HappyHelpmate

I use this recipe. It's from the Duggar's website.

This is the recipe I use for laundry (darks, whites & diapers). Haven't had any issues with it at all. I never thought about using it for the dishes though

[She2dancer]

We make our own using kirks, borax, baking soda and oxyclean for the diapers. We like it! I just read somewhere last wk that you can use discarded lemons (like half a juiced lemon) and 1/4 cup table salt in with your whites to keep them white. I can't wait to try it, makes sense that it would work
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[StormySar]

I use borax, washing soda and homemade tallow soap (specifically for laundry, no scent, conditioners, etc.) in place of fels naptha. It works good and is cheap. I use your typical recipe but replace fels naptha with my tallow soap.

[crunchy_mama]

I am really interested in dishwasher soap as well - seems a lot of people have trouble w/ the homemade versions.

[spiderdust]

Truthfully, I wanted to like homemade laundry detergent. I really, really did. But it never worked with our hard water and the clothes didn't get clean enough. You mentioned that you have well water (although you've got a filter), so keep an eye on how your clothes are handling it.

From what I've heard from people who have had great success with it, Ivory works just as well as Fels-Naptha. I think the liquid/gel mixture would work better than the powdered.

[Gray's Mommy]

We have hard water & I will only use the liquid version of the detergent. The powdered just leaves my clothing yucky.
I bought a Mrs. Meyer's bar soap to try instead of the fels-naptha soap. It smells divine!

[broodymama]

I'm using the powdered version of the homemade laundry detergent made with Ivory instead of the Fels Naptha. (Just because the Ivory is easier to find and quicker to grate. ) I haven't made the liquid version, but I might give it a try at some point. I use a similar mix, minus the Ivory and add some Oxyclean, for my cloth diapers.

[treehuggermama]

We have sensitive skin here so I too wanted to make my own laundry soap. I tried the one with borax/washing soda/fels naptha and my dd broke out terribly with hives and my skin was sooo itchy. And the smell of it was a bit too overpowering for me from the fels naptha. We switched to soap nuts and no problems! I know they aren't "homemade" but they are natural and very cheap/load when bought in bulk.

Good luck!