Homemade powdered laundry soap

I feel REALLY good about using coconut oil to wash our clothes!  Some people love how Fels-Naptha smells.  I really don’t.  Ivory worked just fine for us.  But this stuff smells like heaven!  During my use of this batch, our clothes have come out cleaner, with just a hint of peppermint in our regular loads.  But the best part is when I use it for my cloth diapers.  No, they don’t come out smelling like peppermint, BUT they actually don’t stink while they are washing.  Previously in our new apartment, where the washer is so close to the kitchen, I would wait until we went to bed to put the diapers in the wash, or at least right after a meal so that we could evacuate the premises during the stinky “necessary evil”.  Now I can wash diapers whenever I want, and I don’t have to apologize when company comes.  You can achieve similar results by adding essential oils to your laundry soap.  However, I love that the oils are built into the soap.  I really enjoyed grating this bar.  :o)  In addition to peppermint, they have almond, baby mild, orange, lavender, eucalyptus, rose, and tea tree.  Some are better than others for laundry, but they would all be fun to try! 

My take on Borax
I have also decided that I personally don’t mind using Borax for our family to wash with.  I talked to my mother about it, and she told me a story that she recently heard about a man who read who was told all of the dangerous things about the light-bulbs that he was using, in favor of a more natural light bulb.  He responded, “Thank you for this valuable information.  I will now stop grinding up my light-bulbs and putting them in my coffee.”  Borax is a detergent, and a natural one.  When my soap-making friends do their magic, they wear safety goggles and gloves.  The scary things that have been written about borax have convinced me not to make slime with it to play with my children, but my family has benefitted from using borax for generations, and none of us have had birth defects or fertility problems.  Use the product as directed and use common sense!   My initial response to the fact that borax is illegal in certain parts of Europe is that Comfrey is illegal to sell for consumption here in the states.  Europe is as vulnerable to shady legislation as the states.  Perhaps this is a soap-box moment from an un-educated scientific background, and so be it.  I don’t have time to become an expert.  Borax is cheap.  Borax is effective.  Borax works for my family.  Besides, the only people who have told me how dangerous borax is are people who were trying to sell me their laundry detergent.

This homemade powdered laundry soap is very green, especially when you think about all of the plastic containers that I’m not buying.  All of my ingredients are purchased in paper.  It also saves a lot of green.  And yes, it really does get your clothes clean.  I am just glad that I don’t have to boil the soap over water and let it soak overnight anymore.  Grate the soap, mix the ingredients, and you are done!  Enjoy!

 Please note:  I was not paid in any way to for my endorsement of Dr. Bronner’s products, or from borax and washing soda manufacturers.  This really is just a happy customer blogging about a cool product.