DYI



----------------Homemade Laundry Soap------------------------
By Lauren Asmus
One of my greatest friends who now lives in Montana is all about organic or/and eco-friendly products. This is why I asked her to write me something for this blog and she came up with home-made laundry soap, ideal for those with allergies and on a budget. Plus it contains no chemicals. Here what she writes.

I love this soap because it is cheap to make, eco friendly, great for allergies, and gentle on your nice clothes.  It always gets mine very clean!  

 Ingredients
1 bar of dr. bronzers grated ( I like the lavender!)
1 cup Washing soda (you can make with baking soda, see bottom of post for directions)
1/2 cup Borax

Step 1.  
A. Buy all the things you need.  Stores I recommend trying first: Ace hardware, Walmart, Albertsons (for borax).  Target and most organic stores sell Dr. Bronners bars. 
B. If you can't find washing soda, its just baked baking soda.  See bottom of this post for directions. 

Step 2.  
-       While shredding your soap, bring four cups of water to a boil in a large pot.

Step 3. 
-       Add shredded soap until bar is completely dissolved, over medium high heat.
-       Turn off the stove, or things WILL boil over.
Step 4.
-       Pour in borax/washing soda mixture until completely dissolved.  Stir lots. 
-       Remove little bits of soap that have not dissolved (or they will stick to your clothes in the laundry).
Step 5.
-       Fill the rest of your pot with water (about 16 cups).
Step 6. 
-       For concentrated detergent (I prefer this), let sit overnight to cool- it should be scoop able like ice cream.
-       For normal strength soap, fill soap mixture into five gallon bucket and fill the rest with water (or two mop buckets, it will just be more concentrated).

Step 7. 
Pour into glass jars. 

Use: for concentrated detergent - pour sludge into jars, use 1-3 heaping tablespoons per load.
-For normal strength soap, pour detergent into leftover laundry detergent containers, water jugs, etc.  Shake before using.  Add 1/2 to 1 cup per load.  
- Both mixtures will gel up overnight, don't panic, it is supposed to do that. 

Tips
* add extra detergent or a cup of baking soda for very dirty clothes.
* add a cup of vinegar to the load for sweat stains or smelly clothes. 
* the mixture will separate, just stir or shake.

WASHING SODA RECIPE
- pour a couple cups of baking soda into a cookie sheet or shallow baking dish.
- bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.
- it should look "lackluster" or as I like to refer to it, like the texture of sand if it somehow got static cling. 
- if you just think baking soda looks boring no matter how you cook it like I do, bake for 1 hour.  You'll be fine.












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