Laundry….
A word that sparks different reactions for different people.
It’s definitely not one of my favorite household chores although its better when at least the folding is done with someone else. I’m a social creature so doing life by myself is not one of my more favorite tasks. Being the mom of 3 kids brings on a bunch of laundry. Our washer and dryer do a lot of laundry a week just for the 3 adults that live here full time. My kids are here every other week and that means for even more laundry on those weeks.
Add in the fact that I have a son who is a shade tree mechanic and pulls me in to pretty much whatever project he’s currently working on, and my laundry isn’t just dirty it’s downright a stain filled nightmare. Not only that but my daughter is known for getting dirty even if she’s in a dress, it’s awesome but means I have to work on stains on delicate fabrics. I haven’t had a lot of luck with commercial cleaners on things like old car grease and over the years have worked at perfecting something that actually takes out the majority of it if not all of it. I usually pre-treat most stains. Old grease did not come out with just regular store-bought laundry detergent. My journey with homemade laundry detergent started with a different problem though and gravitated to also working on solving the grease. The initial problem was a bad eczema case with my two boys. We were told by the allergy doctor that lessening the amount of chemicals and fragrances would help ease the eczema, so I decided to start researching. My first few attempts were ok for most things but I quickly realized that the grease wasn’t coming out, not even the smell was. I started looking for additional information on things that took out car grease but couldn’t find much. I was talking one day to my father about the problem and he remembered a trick that an older lady in my church while I was growing up used to use. She used to add powdered dishwasher detergent to her husband’s greasy stuff. So I added that to my next batch and found that it worked a lot better. I also found that using more of it with those loads than I did with my normal loads really helped. Another thing I learned after some different trial and error was that I didn’t necessarily have to use the laundry soap bars. As long as it was a good quality soap I could use a bar of whatever scent that I wanted for that batch of detergent. If you want to use your own essential oils you can use unscented soap.
My recipe:
1 five gallon bucket with tight fitting lid
1 box washing soda
1 box borax
1 large box powdered dishwasher detergent
4 bars soap grated
4 tubs L.A. Awesome orange oxiclean look alike
1 large box baking soda (I get it in the 15 lb bags from Sam’s and just fill the empty borax box and add that much
Essential oils to your liking (I use a dropper and use 5 full droppers.)
Put all ingredients into the bucket and then put lid on tightly. Double check the seal as the next step will make a mess if not.
Flip the bucket for 100 total revolutions. Alternately you can use a drywall mixer paddle on the end of your drill. I have done it both ways. If I am by myself I use the flip method. If I have someone to hold the bucket and my drill doesn’t die I prefer the paddle method.
For using it I use the scoop from one of the oxiclean tubs and I use 2 scoops for a regular load. For one of the greasy loads I put 3 in the dispenser and at least 2 in the tub. It really depends on how soiled the load is. I also always use the extra rinse on the greasy loads. I also will spray down the greasy items with degreaser before putting them in. My son’s jeans usually come completely clean using this method.
This usually lasts this family of 6 around 4-6 months depending on how much truly soiled laundry I must do or how much extra laundering there is for any number of various reasons.
Happy laundering!