1. Sort by Color - Whites, Darks, Lights
2. Sort by Type - Delicates, Jeans, Towels, Cottons
3. Jeans should ALWAYS be turned inside out to assure minimal fading
4. Water temperature - Towels, sheets, and whites all require HOT water... everything else is cold
5. Whites always use bleach
6. Olivia's laundry requires search and application of stain remover on every piece... also requires an added laundry boost such as Oxy Clean
Ok.. those are the basics. :p There are much more 'sub rules'. Needless to say I am a little nuts. But please note that this method allows my daughter to sport expensive labels (that were bargain shopped) and I never throw away stained clothes. Stains don't happen in my house... ever. So quality of laundry care is important. I loved the initial idea of making laundry soap.. its green and better for your family (less chemicals).
However... what my family DOESN'T know.. is I will gladly continue to subject them to harsh laundry chemicals for the sake of my laundry. That's terrible.. isn't it? However after MUCH research I was convinced that:
A. My laundry will, in fact, get cleaned
B. Stains will NOT be an issue
C. It will not wear my clothes out any faster
So This was a go-ahead for me! I bought the supplies at my local walmart and a cheese grater at the Dollar Tree for... you guessed it... a dollar.
REQUIRED ITEMS:
Washing Soda - $2.00
Borax - $4.00
1 Bar Fels Naptha Soap - $1.00
1 Cheese Grater - $1.00
TOTAL COST: $8.00
** Please note teh above supplies will make FAR more than one set of detergent!!!
Directions:
Grate 1 Bar of Fels Naptha Soap (I hear Zote works great too)
Combine the grated Soap with 1 Cup Washing Soda and 1 Cup Borax and mix well.
Thats it! I use 2 tablespoons per LARGE load of laundry. I did laundry all weekend and the clothes look GREAT!!! So how much does it cost per load of laundry? I don't know.. dirt cheap... pennies maybe?? I made one batch of the detergent and did about 6 loads of laundry.. there is no dent so far. It is clearly going to last a LONGGGG time. If you want to give it a try, I encourage you! However, I know there are special instructions for people who have hard water so you may want to do some research if thats you.
The recipe I used is from the diynatural site.
