Friday, November 13, 2009

I Hope This Works

I’m excited because I’m about to embark on a new endeavor that could rock your world.

I’m going to make laundry detergent.

The laundry room where I live recently installed these new, modern front-loading machines that require a special low-suds laundry detergent. I went to the store to get this special detergent and was appalled at the exorbitant cost -- appalled, I tell you!

I didn’t want to pay that much for laundry detergent. Was this special detergent really necessary?

Upon researching it, I found out that, no, it’s not.

The Expensive Laundry Detergent People are in cahoots with the Front-Loading Laundry Machine People – it’s all just an evil, manipulative capitalist racket. Can you believe something like that would happen in this country?

Just use less of your regular detergent so that it doesn’t make too many suds.

Well, in doing my research, I found a way to make your own low-suds detergent for just pennies -- pennies, I tell you!

You will need:

½ cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda. (Order here)
½ cup of Borax Laundry Booster (Order here)
One bar of soap
(they suggest Ivory Soap but I'm going to use my Old Spice Fresh Scent because it smells really nice.)

Shave the bar of soap, (a microplane grater would probably work well for this) mix together with the other ingredients and store in a plastic container.

And you only need 1 tablespoon per load.
1 Tbs.

That’s it!

I just did the math. If you order the boxes of washing soda and borax, along with the Ivory Soap it will yield 112 loads of laundry at .02 cents per load. Two cents per load!

Basically, my laundry only consists of towels, underpants, socks and sheets. So it's not like I need Super Mega Tide XQ with Aloe-Verbena Stain Fighters and Pomegranate Gentle-Glide Softeners. Have we become that spoiled? For crying out loud, our great grandmothers made their own laundry soap from leftover pig fat and lye. From what I hear, it was pretty powerful stuff.

I really hope this works well. Laundry detergent is so awfully heavy to carry back from the grocery store. Also, I'm basically cheap and would love to stick it to the Nasty Capitalist Laundry Detergent People.

I’ll keep you posted.

7 comments:

  1. I've thought about doing this myself, as it seems like an easy way to be economical without going to extremes. I already wash my hair with a solution of baking soda and water. Works better than any shampoo I've ever used.

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  2. Well, aren't you the resourceful one?? :)

    (Yes, I know you are!! :) )

    I can't see myself ever making our my laundry detergent, though. *smiles*

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  3. Anonymous10:09 PM

    I get my laundry soap at Costco. To be honest...it is the same price as the top load and I use less of it. So save money and do not need to make it. Thanks for your recipe though. :)

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  4. You're the Martha Stewart of laundry!
    You're the Maytag repairman with tips!
    You're the tops!

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  5. Bad Alice and MHP - You shall both be receiving containers of my Wash Powder by mail. Please market them and make me a millionaire.

    Bob- you will receive a complementary package. Thank you.
    'Martha'

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  6. Did no one else notice that he doesn't actually wash his clothes? Underwear and linens? What the hell do you do with your trousies, jeans and shirts, man?

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  7. Lorraine: Pants and shirts get done by the dry-cleaner.
    I don't iron.
    Yes, I am that lazy.

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