Doing Well by Being a Laundress?

Laundry...the bane of my existence

With three, well four if you count my wonderful husband, crazy, active boys in my life it seems as if the laundry multiplies by leaps and bounds.  Just when I think I have caught up with it, it's spilling out of the hampers yet again.  As one can imagine, I go through A LOT of laundry detergent.  Now, I had been using the Ecos Brand laundry detergent for a number of years now due to sensitive skin issues with myself and my middle child.  It really is not that pricey, but I decided that we needed to cut that expense out of our budget and I searched for a cheaper, environmentally & health friendly, yet just as effective detergent for us.  Here is what I came up with:

Now, I know that this doesn't look like much in the way of laundry detergent, but let me tell you about the process that all of this undergoes.  First off, I grate about 1/3 of the Fels-Naptha soap and melt it in about 3 pints of hot water on the stove.  I then added 1/2 cup each of the washing soda and the Borax.  This mixture is then stirred until thickened and then removed from the heat.  I put one quart of hot water into a  2-gallon bucket and added the soap mixture to it.  This mixture is then stirred completely and hot water is added to top it off.  This mixture needs to set for 24 hours in order to "gel".  After 24 hours it is ready to use, you may need to add more hot water to the mixture if it is gelled too much, and you will need to mix before each use.  I poured my mixture into empty detergent bottles that I already had.  It takes approximately 1/2 cup of this mixture to wash a large load of laundry...the cost per load of laundry is approximately .03!!  Our clothes are wonderfully clean, no fragrances have been added, we haven't tainted our water supply with chemical laden run-off, and we save money over the long run!!

I know that it is "weird" to do this sort of thing, but so far these "weird" things work for us, and that, my friends, is part of "doing well"!

Now, if I could just find a way to have the laundry folded and put away I would be a happy camper!

You have one life to live; do well, eat well, be well!

BS, CHC, AADP