Many of you know, but I've been on a homemade kick since before Jemma was born. I've gotten away from using commercial cleaners and pretty much make my own with a mix of water, soap, washing soda, borax, baking soda, and vinegar. Anywhoo, the only thing I hadn't jumped into was detergent. Having heard good things about a family recipe I decided to give it a try. I ended up modifying the recipe I was given as I just don't have the space to store gallons of liquid detergent and Tom prefers powder detergent. I'm including both recipes below.
Pope Family Recipe (Thank you Grandma, Aunt Margie and Aunt Sharon!)
Ingredients: ZOTE soap, Borax, Washing Soda; Water
Grate 1/3 bar of ZOTE soap, put in a pan with 6 cups of water and heat until soap is melted. Add 1/2 cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of washing soda. Stir to dissolve. Remove from heat; add 4 cups of hot water in a bucket, add soap mixture; stir. Then add an additional 1 gallon plus 6 cups of cold water; stir. Let it sit for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Pour into empty detergent or softener bottles.
Notes: I couldn't find Zote soap, so I used Fels Naptha. The consistentcy will not be a smooth gel and should be shaken before each use.
My Recipe
As I said, I didn't have enough room to store the 2 gallons of liquid, not to mention I was impatient to use it! When I started grating the Fels Naptha at home, Tom started having an allergic reaction to it, so I knew this wouldn't work for us! He is extremely sensitive to chemical fragrances. One of my friends uses a similar recipe with castile soap, so I bought a bar of Dr. Bronner's peppermint instead. He seemed to tolerate that just fine :)
Ingredients: Castile bar soap, Borax, Washing Soda
Grate the soap and mix with equal parts borax and washing soda. I did 1 cup of each. Use 1 tbsp per load.
Notes: Working well so far! I haven't noticed any difference in cleaning, even with our cloth diapers. I also use vinegar in place of fabric softener and the occasional cup of bleach for whitening.
Pope Family Recipe (Thank you Grandma, Aunt Margie and Aunt Sharon!)
Ingredients: ZOTE soap, Borax, Washing Soda; Water
Grate 1/3 bar of ZOTE soap, put in a pan with 6 cups of water and heat until soap is melted. Add 1/2 cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of washing soda. Stir to dissolve. Remove from heat; add 4 cups of hot water in a bucket, add soap mixture; stir. Then add an additional 1 gallon plus 6 cups of cold water; stir. Let it sit for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Pour into empty detergent or softener bottles.
Notes: I couldn't find Zote soap, so I used Fels Naptha. The consistentcy will not be a smooth gel and should be shaken before each use.
My Recipe
As I said, I didn't have enough room to store the 2 gallons of liquid, not to mention I was impatient to use it! When I started grating the Fels Naptha at home, Tom started having an allergic reaction to it, so I knew this wouldn't work for us! He is extremely sensitive to chemical fragrances. One of my friends uses a similar recipe with castile soap, so I bought a bar of Dr. Bronner's peppermint instead. He seemed to tolerate that just fine :)
Ingredients: Castile bar soap, Borax, Washing Soda
Grate the soap and mix with equal parts borax and washing soda. I did 1 cup of each. Use 1 tbsp per load.
Notes: Working well so far! I haven't noticed any difference in cleaning, even with our cloth diapers. I also use vinegar in place of fabric softener and the occasional cup of bleach for whitening.
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