The Laundry Experiment

Coming Home

“I believe that a Godly home is a foretaste of heaven. Our homes, imperfect as they are, must be a haven from the chaos outside. They should be a reflection of our eternal home, where troubled souls find peace, weary hearts find rest, hungry bodies find refreshment, lonely pilgrims find communion, and wounded spirits find compassion.”
― Jani Ortlund

What a beautiful quote about home.  As you follow my blog, you will see that I am a “quote-y” person.  I love the written word, and will try to tie in a quote with each blog.

Pinterest. You either love it, or you have no idea what the word even means.  I’m going to assume there are a few of you out there that still don’t know what it is, and explain that it is a virtual pin board of sorts.  A place to collect and display ideas from all over the net.  As I’ve been checking it out lately, I’ve noticed this idea that keeps floating around for homemade laundry detergent.  Like me, if you’ve seen it, you’ve wondered about it.  My friends Jamie Ricketts and Leslie Pruitte  have even made it and posted about it on Facebook.  So I thought what a perfect experiment to blog about.  Enter my trusty assistants to help!

The ingredients needed are: Borax, Washing Soda, a bar of soap of your choice, and two gallon milk jugs to store it in.

The first step is to grate the entire bar of soap into a pot large enough to cook it in.  Aren’t those tiny hands precious!

The next step is to place a gallon of water in the pot and put it on the stove and warm until the soap is dissolved.  When the soap is dissolved, add 1 cup of the borax and 1 cup of the washing soda.  Let it come to the boil.

After it comes to a boil, turn off the burner and add a gallon of cold water.  When it is cool enough pour into your gallon jugs using a funnel.  Again, those sweet hands on the funnel!  The other sweet set of hands was taking the picture!

After it sits for a while it will thicken up.  Be sure and mark your jugs with the contents.  Your detergent will be the color of your soap, and we used Dove unscented for our detergent.

So what’s my opinion of this little project?  Well, I’ve washed several loads today with it and here are my thoughts.  It has a very clean smell.  It seems to clean as well as my usual detergent, and if what they say about the price per load is true (approximately .06 per load) it’s a winner in my book! Not to mention it is a super fun thing to do with the kiddos.  So grab some empty milk jugs, and get to cooking!

Tip:  Use dryer sheets to clean your baseboards with.  they work wonders picking up the dust, and will leave static whic will repel new dust and dirt.