Laundry detergent recipe
Q:
What a response I had to last week’s column when I said I was going to repeat some of my natural cleaning recipes. Everyone who emailed me seems to have lost or never found the laundry detergent recipe. So here it is:
Laundry detergent
1.5 litres of water
½ bar castile or vegetable-based soap or Sunlight soap, grated
½ cup washing soda
50gm borax
1 litre hot water
In a saucepan, mix the grated soap with 1.5 litres of water and heat on low until soap has dissolved. Stir in washing soda and borax. Stir until thick, then remove from heat. (If you’re using castile or vegetable-based soap it won’t thicken straightaway, but don’t worry, it will do so overnight). Add one litre of hot water to a bucket, then add soap mixture and mix well. Fill bucket with another 5 litres of hot water and mix again. You can add about 20 drops of lavender oil to the mixture for a nice fragrance or 20 drops of eucalyptus oil, which is great for woollens. Pour the mixture into old plastic milk bottles or other containers, then set aside for 24 hours or until it thickens. Use ½ cup per load of laundry. It’s easy to squeeze from the bottles as it is quite gluggy.
A:
What a response I had to last week’s column when I said I was going to repeat some of my natural cleaning recipes. Everyone who emailed me seems to have lost or never found the laundry detergent recipe. So here it is:
Laundry detergent
1.5 litres of water
½ bar castile or vegetable-based soap or Sunlight soap, grated
½ cup washing soda
50gm borax
1 litre hot water
In a saucepan, mix the grated soap with 1.5 litres of water and heat on low until soap has dissolved. Stir in washing soda and borax. Stir until thick, then remove from heat. (If you’re using castile or vegetable-based soap it won’t thicken straightaway, but don’t worry, it will do so overnight). Add one litre of hot water to a bucket, then add soap mixture and mix well. Fill bucket with another 5 litres of hot water and mix again. You can add about 20 drops of lavender oil to the mixture for a nice fragrance or 20 drops of eucalyptus oil, which is great for woollens. Pour the mixture into old plastic milk bottles or other containers, then set aside for 24 hours or until it thickens. Use ½ cup per load of laundry. It’s easy to squeeze from the bottles as it is quite gluggy.
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