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Homemade Laundry Soap

Avoid toxic chemicals and fragrances with our homemade laundry soap recipe.

Materials

  • 1 to 2 tsp grated bar soap I scrape this on a cheese grater with large holes 3 times.
  • 1/4 cup vinegar I use my homemade apple cider vinegar, but any vinegar will work.
  • 8 drops essential oil

Instructions

  • 1. Pre-Treat Stains right away with cold water and a natural soap bar (works great for hand washing items too). 2. Use a cold rinse cycle for clothes or socks containing dirt. 3. Add all of the ingredients to the washing machine (see our tips to get your clothes smelling clean and not musty below). 4. Dry the clothes in a dryer with a wool dryer ball and essential oils added to the ball or hang clothes outside to dry (great way to get outside, get a fresh outdoor scent, and save a little on the electric bill). For the last two years I have found that I can even dry clothes outside in the winter a lot of the time. Sometimes it will take two days to dry.
    To Eliminate Odors
    On our farm, clothes and socks can get pretty smelly! After a cold rinse cycle, I fill up the washer with hot water and our natural laundry soap recipe from above, then let it agitate for a short time, and finally allow it to sit for about 15 minutes. This has worked really well for us.  
    You can also add 1/2 cup of baking soda to the wash cycle and/or 1/2 cup baking soda to the rinse cycle. Not only will this neutralize odors, it will also soften up the clothes.
    How we increase efficiency
    For greater efficiency in laundry chores we bought six trash cans, labeled them, and I taught everyone how to sort their own clothes into those cans.  I can dump this right into the washer and save a lot of time and displeasure of sorting clothes.