What homemade laundry detergent recipe do you use?

BamBam510

I made the recipe from the ecofriendlyfamily blog, and am not having very good results.  I have a regular (non HE) washing machine, I did the small batch of it rather than the huge batch since I wanted to try it first, and I've noticed our clothes don't seem to be coming as clean.  Socks still look dirty on the bottom, and one of my H's shirts had a funk left to it.  I also just noticed on my DDs pajamas something crusty like dried food or something, that I think would have come off had I used a store bought deteregent.

It says to use 2TBSP, and I've increased it to three and don't see a change.

Suggestions? Or a different recipe?

hannafemme

I am using this same recipe with an HE machine. Two ideas:

1. Have you grid dissolving the soap in a jar of water before putting it in?  Are you washing on hot or cold?

2. Did you grate the soap or process it?  I am wondering if your soap particles are too big and your not getting soap in every load.  

BamBam510

I don't have the soap disolving first, I'll hvae to try that.  I'm washing in cold/cold or sometimes warm/cold.

I used my food processor to grate it, I ran it through twice but the pieces are a bit large...well, like your typical grated cheese.  Maybe I should try chopping them up smaller?

hannafemme

If you are doing a cold wash, I would definitely dissolve the soap first.

I grate mine by hand using the smallest grate on hand-held cheese grater.  It takes some time but seems to work well.

littleanomaly

We use the CD detergent from that blog (too lazy to shred soap and didn't want 2 buckets when one would do) and we didn't have any problems. I used a LOT more than 2tsp though!

Switzerland87

hannafemme:

If you are doing a cold wash, I would definitely dissolve the soap first.

I grate mine by hand using the smallest grate on hand-held cheese grater.  It takes some time but seems to work well.

This is exactly what I do. It gets to a consistency similar to grated parmesan. Also, I use way more than 2 Tbs. Typically, I use 1/4 cup. 1/2 cup if if it's a very dirty load or has a lot of heavy items like towels or jeans.

You also may want to consider doing a hot/cold cycle for whites, at least occasionally. That made all the difference in the world for getting the dinge out of mine.  

PeaceLoveYarn

littleanomaly:

We use the CD detergent from that blog (too lazy to shred soap and didn't want 2 buckets when one would do) and we didn't have any problems. I used a LOT more than 2tsp though!

Same here  

MrsTallPaul

I feel like we use a lot more than 2T also... not sure if I will continue to use it after this batch runs out.