Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Pinterest Laundry Detergent

It's been all over Pinterest and I've debated and debated, but finally decided to try it.  Why in the world did I want to try this? Well my dear Mr. Fixit works around machines, oil and gas fumes in an un-air-conditioned environment and to say that he smells a little on the "rank" side when he gets home is an under statement.  Love him to pieces, but not how is work clothes smell when he gets home.

 
A lady at one of our little Antique Malls told me about her daughter made her own laundry detergent and I said "oh, you mean the one that you have to cook on the stove?" and she said " No! This is a powder mixture"!
Here the Angels singing? (AAAAHHHH!) She found the receipe on Pinterest. I came home and looked it up and it was everywhere.
 
So I know I'm not giving you something new, but thought you may want to give it a try without having to look it up yourself and to let you know what I think about it.

After a trip to Wally World (I try to avoid WW, but sometimes ya just have-ta go) I picked up the  necessary items.  I already had the Borax and Baking soda and I just noticed the Borax isn't in the photo, but it is in the new mixture. 

This is the formula that I found on Pinterest
1 4lb box of Mule Team Borax
1 3lb box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 3lb container of Oxi Clean
2 bars of Zote  or 4 bars of Fels Naptha Soap (grated)
4 1bs of Baking Soda
1 or 1 55 oz Purex Crystals.


Then you alternate mixing in the different ingredients, stirring while you go so that you won't have to stir so much at one time to integrate all the detergents.  I placed mine in a large trash bag that sat inside a plastic bin and would pick it up occasionally to mix everything up.

The instructions tell you to grate the bars of soap very fine or you could slice them into sections, put them in the microwave, let it puff up and then easily crumble it into the mixture. 
 
The instructions that I had said to heat it on high for 1 minute...I had to repeat that a few times and it still never Puffed up all the slices, but I was running out of room in my dish so I stopped it.
 
 
It's really pink, fluffy an  pretty and very fragrant. (I was a little bit tired of the fragrance after I spent all this time working on it)
 

I let it cool for awhile as I started mixing up some of the other items.  It  took awhile and it never got to the "crumbly" state that I had hoped for.  So I grated the last bar of Zote  and one of the Fels Neptha bars. 

 
Once everything was mixed, I used the Oxi Clean container to place in the cabinet in the laundry room and added a scoop so that we (Mr. Fixit)  wouldn't use too much.  Supposedly only 2 Tablespoons added into the drum of a front load washer is enough. I imagine you'll have to play around with what works for you.  Oh, and all the other blogs say that it's safe for a HP washer.  I guess since you only use 2 TBS, its not a problem. 
 
It was all overpoweringly fragrant and I was unsure about adding the Purex Crystals, but that actually helped calm down the fragrance.  I used the Lavender one and not the entire bottle.
 
The rest of the mixture was dumped into an old tennis ball bucket and will sit in the garage until we need to fill the inside tub again. 
 
As I type this blog post, I washed a blanket that I use on our bed for the dogs to lie on while I watch TV at night.  It's ready to go into the dryer and I'll have to say that the fragrance isn't strong at all. 
 
 
Not sure that I'll try this method again.  What I'm I going to do with all this mess?  Have you tried a Pinterest that worked or failed?
 

 

































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