Living among the amish has cause me to take a closer look at living the “simple life”. I’ve always considered myself to live a fairly simple life. I love staying at home to take care of my family, & I am happy to sacrifice all the extra “stuff” in order to do so. Taking a look into the lives of those who are living around me, I have seen a new value in living a sustainable lifestyle. The more I look at ways to meet our needs with homemade alternatives, the more fulfilling my my choices have become. By growing our own produce & buying what we don’t grow from local farms I know that I am helping my neighbor provide for his family. ( Not adding icing to the cake of a corporate retailer). By finding homemade alternatives to products I normally pay a high price for I am saving my family money. Money that can be use to provide for other needs. One of these homemade alternatives that I have started using is homemade laundry detergent. It works fabulously. My clothes are clean, they smell great, and I am saving our family money.
Here is the recipe I am using:
1/2 c. Borax (found in the laundry section)
1/2 c. Washing soda (can be ordered online)
1 c. of Fels-Naptha (found with the bar soaps)
Use the grating disk to shred the Fels-Naptha bar.
Use the food processor blade to mix the Borax & Washing Soda with the Fels-Naptha.
Use 1 tbsp for a light load, 2 tbsp for a regular load, or 3 tbsp for heavily soiled load.
1 batch will wash an estimated 75 loads.
Cost:
Borax $2.oo
Washing soda $8.00 (1 box will make approx. 6 batches. Price is including shipping)
Fels-Naptha $.79
This works out to be $2.50 a batch or .03 a load.
If you decide to try this out at home, let me know how it goes.
Rae Grant said,
July 21, 2009 @ 1:30 pm
I'll try this. How long does it take to make this batch?
Between Hitching Posts said,
July 21, 2009 @ 9:30 pm
Not long at all. 5 min. plus clean up maybe, so 25 min. for 5 batches. I made 5 batches (that is what's photographed). I figure I'm making the mess, I'd rather do it only once.