My Soapbox

Between Jason's ER scrubs, the school uniforms, the baby clothes, regular play day clothes, the kitchen towels, the blankets for our pups, etc., etc., I do a lot of laundry. I have a system that works for us, and usually, I have every last piece of laundry done before James gets home from school at 3:30. It's awesome to have a clean laundry room before the busiest time of the day even gets started for our family. (Then it's on to snacks, homework, meal prep, dinner, kitchen cleanup, family time, baths, story time, bedtime…with laundry to start again the next morning!)

[Warning: *My Soapbox* here begins!] Both for economic and environmental reasons, I make my own laundry soap. I prefer the boxed chemical-free laundry powder, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find as consumers demand the scented, plastic water-filled containers of laundry liquid over and above the more environmentally friendly powdered variety. It became so frustrating for me to see the rows upon rows of all of that bottled water/soap on the shelves. All I saw was waste on a vulgar scale as I contemplated the enormous shipping costs and human labor involved in transporting those plastic containers of water/soap when we could save so much if everyone just used powder and then recycled the boxes thereafter. And then all of the chemicals that enter our water supply and stay in our clothes (and make their way into our skin and drinking water!) after these chemical-laden soaps have been used to treat our laundry… And, perhaps it is my bionic nose owing to my multiple pregnancies, but all of those artificial scents are so chemically offensive and anything but natural… I also try to avoid having too many products in my home that might require a call to the National Poison hotline or a trip to the ED.

All that said, I have taken to making my own laundry detergent. It is easy. It is affordable. It is safe. And it works. I use bar soap (Ivory is the cheapest and most accessible, but if there is a deal at Marshall's/Home Goods, I'll pick up the lavender- or citrus-scented Dr. Bronner's), Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, and Borax---I can find all of these items at Walmart in the cleaning supplies aisle (and sometimes HyVee or Target).

I begin by grating the bar soap in the food processor. Hint: Ivory can make for a moist texture, so to get it to the consistency that I prefer, I add a few tablespoons of the Arm and Hammer washing soda to the grating process.

I then mix two parts washing soda and two parts Borax to the one part of grated soap. Here, I used three bars of soap which made three cups of grated soap. So: three bars of soap, six cups washing soda, six cups Borax.

My mixture overflowed my storage container (an old economy-size Kraft Parmesan container from Sam's Club), so I used a clean bucket in which to do the final stirring and for extra storage.

And voila! I only use a few tablespoons of powder per load of laundry. This simple mixture goes a long way, and it works! (And, lest anyone think I'm overly sanctimonious about my laundry routine, I do keep boxes of Tide Free & Gentle or Seventh Generation in the cupboard for some of the more intense loads of laundry or when I just don't have the energy to make more laundry soap when I have run out of my own concoction. But seriously, good luck finding that boxed stuff. When I do find the boxes in the store, I wipe out the shelf entirely just in case the boxes never return again...)

Happy laundering y'all!

*Special thanks to two little helpers (see right hand [i.e., Claire], and righthand bystander [i.e., Anna with sippy]) who helped me stir it all up!