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OT: I made homemade detergent, but it's watery
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Is it just the Fels Naptha soap that you don’t want on your cooking utensils? Would Ivory be okay? I thought they were both just mild, purer types of soap. However, we don’t have a dishwasher, so everything we use for cooking is just hand-washed, hand-rinsed, and usually air-dried (more so out of laziness, lol).
I don’t care for Borax on things either, if it kills ants it’s not necessarily what I want traces of on my pans/pots. FelsNaptha has major warnings on the back about not touching it (obviously not eating it, or getting it in your eyes too) so it just concerns me a bit. I’m sure all of it is fine if you are washing it out well. It only takes a small pan to melt a bar of soap so that’s why I have a separate one. I really like the smell of FelsNaptha, but the clothes won’t ever smell like soap (not bad, just no smell like someone already posted). The last time I used a bar of castile soap and I liked that as well. I’ve used Ivory once and it was okay, but it didn’t seem to work quite as well as the others.
I just made the dry version using:
- 1 bar Fels Naptha – grated
- 1 cup borax
- 1 cup washing soda
i mixed thoroughly and put in a plastic container that can be shaken as needed.
We have front loader HE machines, can I simply put this where I put my Charlie’s soap? The grated soap is in larger pieces, so I’m a bit unsure.
Thanks,
Christie
Christie, did you try running it all through a food processor? Again that makes the soaps in contact with food items, but honestly if you run it through the dishwasher, I can’t imagine it wouldn’t get everything off the items. I think my friend who uses powder does that because grating up the flesnaptha still leaves chunks. Good luck!
I despise the smell of Fels Naptha so I use Ivory. I also have a front loading HE washer and I had trouble with the powdered version not dissolving well so I’ve always made the liquid. I wish the powder worked! Easier to store that than a 5 gsllon bucket.
I’m going to run it through again to break it down some more. I really dislike the mess of liquid since my kids do their own laundry. Hopefully, the powder will work. We will see.
The blender did it. It’s baby fine now. Off to give it a try. Robin, I’ve discovered I don’t care for the Fels-Naptha smell either, so I’ll choose different soap next time.
Great idea on the blender! Think I’ll try a small batch and see how it works. I don’t mind the liquid but I have so many 5-gallon buckets in my laundry room as is. One less would be nice. Let me know what soap you decide on, Christy. I like something with very little scent. Sometimes I add lavender EO to my liquid version. I tell my guys, “I may live with a bunch of men but I don’t have to smell like one.” 🙂
I know some of you don’t like the smell of the Felsnaptha, but the clothes don’t smell like it once they are washed. I guess I don’t think it really has much of a smell anyway.
@Robin: so the liquid version is okay for front loading machines? i suppose so, since it is low suds…
The first load with the powdered version in my front loader HE machine came out clean and smelling, well of nothing at all. So far, so good.
@Robin: Thanks loads! (Pun intended!) No more $12 detergent for me!
Great, Christie! I’m going to try it that way. When I tried before it left white flakes since the front loader uses less water, I assume. It just didn’t dissolve very well.
Does the powdered version work in cold-water loads? One thing I have always done is to start running warm water, put in detergent when there is a few inches of water in the washer tub, then mix it around with an old broom handle. Then I put the water on cold to let it finishing filling up before I put in the clothes.
Perhaps that would dissolve the recipe enough to use it in cold water. I’m just wondering if anyone has successfully used this detergent recipe in cold water washes.
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