Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Homemade Laundry Detergent?

Lately we had a laundry issue. No, not the usual issue of having too much laundry laying on the basement floor BEGGING to be washed. And no, not the issue of my husband seeing the aforementioned piles of laundry, and then only washing one shirt and one pair of pants for work the next day. That really annoys me, however, that is not the issue at hand. The issue is that because we use free & clear laundry detergent, I don't feel like it smells good once cleaned. For example, Pat and I have been running a combined 6 days a week. That means 6 pairs of shorts, 6 tops and 3 sports bras (obviously only I wear those) that are being laundered each week. Anyone that works out knows that running makes you sweat (especially in 100 degree weather like we were having) and sweat makes things stink. Because the free & clear detergent is unscented, I don't feel like the stink truly gets out of the clothes.  Pat likes to use fabric softener, but I don't really and I know it's full of crazy chemicals that are really hard on the dry and the clothes. We have been using it lately though because it is scented helps with the smell issue.

We haven't always used free & clear detergents. Back when i was pregnant we used something else, Tide, maybe, but I had sensitive skin and it used to make my skin itch. When you're pregnant and having so many changes you can't control, having itchy skin from your detergent isn't cool. We switched then and haven't looked back. We never used dreft when Baileigh was a baby because the free & clear worked well on her sensitive baby skin. Detergent isn't cheap, and between laundry, towels and your daughter wetting the bed twice in 3 nights (fantastic...) we do a lot of laundry. I'm looking for a new detergent option that will provide the following:

1) Clean our clothes (obviously!)
2) Make them smell good
3) Not make my skin itchy
4) Easy on the wallet (chaaaa-ching! I'd like to have more money, you know, for craft supplies!)

My friend Michelle made her own detergent a few months ago and even blogged about it at her blog Makin' and Bakin' Memories She mentioned that it cost about $20 for all the ingredients and she estimates it will last for 9 months or so since you only use 1-2 tablespoons a load! She washes a lot of laundry too with a two- year-old and an 8 month old!

This weekend I don't have any plans so I think I am going to go out and get the ingredients! Pat is a bit skeptical, but he doesn't like his workout clothes smelling either, so hopefully he just lets me "do my thing"

Hopefully I love it! Then maybe I'll move onto creating my own cleaning supplies...something I have been planning to do since Earth day- 2010! (Kristin, do you remember me printing out the Homemade Cleaning Supplies handout and distributing it around NICC on earth day?)

Anyways, I'll eventually post back and let you know if it was successful! Don't expect a nice tutorial like Michelle did though. Why must I reinvent the wheel? :)

2 comments:

Estephania said...

I use a similar recipe for our cloth diaper detergent (minus the fels naptha). It works really well and I bought all the supplies off Alice.com because free shipping and you can get larger quantities. Spent like $30 and I use 1/2 Tbsp. per load. We will have it FOREVER! Good luck!

colleen said...

Thanks for the tip! I will have to check it out! :)