A Neko

It's a years worth for $19.99

Mocksoup Graves

no, 25 loads per ball if you only wash in cold. If you wash in hot, about half that. That isn't a years worth. Well, maybe if it is only you, and you only do one load of clothes per 2 weeks. I have a family of 6 that I have to do laundry for. That wouldn't last me a couple of months.

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Mocksoup Graves

And the Fels Naphtha was about a dollar, and the soda and borax were about 4 dollars per box. I can get about 180 loads for $1.25

Surreal

And you're getting a good product, not paying for water, and being kind to the environment on packaging too.

Those who only think about price deserve the crap they get.

Bruise Shepherd

My dad worked for a huge manufacturer of washers and dryers for over thirty years.
He has always insisted that people (in general) use far too much detergent in machines, largely because the detergent makers recommended amounts shown on the packaging is at least twice what is required.
If you are in an area with soft water, like me, the amount needed could easily be 25% of the recommended dose. Using too much detergent is not only wasteful, but it can reduce the effective lifetime of the machine because it ruins the bearings in the pump, and in the drum assembly.

His rule of thumb has always been, if you can smell detergent when you open the door, then you're using to much, because the rinse cycle should be flushing everything clean.

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Mocksoup Graves

I learned that back in my cloth diaper making days. If you used too much you just caused a build up on the material and caused them to fail.

Mocksoup Graves

Fels Naptha is probably one of the best pretreatments I have found for getting out grease stains.

Lo Jacobs

I tried to do this. I bought OxyClean Free and baking soda, and then I couldn't find any washing soda. I went to four different places and none of the employees even knew what it was. I'm stuck

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Surreal

Evidently you're not alone... from a link

Lo Jacobs

Yeah, I was hoping I wouldn't have to buy it online Apparently you used to be able to search on armandhammer.com to see the store locations where they sold particular products, but it's since been replaced by The Most Annoying and Unhelpful Website On The Internet.

Jessyanne

A few years ago we made a very big undertaking attempting to go as "green" as possible. 5 years later and I have to say, we did pretty well. I did attempt this once. ONCE. The clothes came out clean sure, but they had a faint mildewy scent to them, that just seemed to continue to get stronger. I wasted time, money, energy and water all in the whole rewash of those loads of laundry. I've been hooked on Soap Nuts detergent since.

Now I'm of the opinion there are at least two things you should never skimp on... Laundry Detergent and Trash bags.

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Mocksoup Graves

My clothes are always really clean with this, did you keep it as powder or did you predissolve it?

If you use cold water, predissolving it would be more effective. This last batch I melted in some water on the stove and mixed in the washing soda and borax in a bucket. It seems to work even better this way.

Lewis Luminos

Most of the raw ingredients for these home-made things (not just this laundry detergent, but home-made things in general) are unavailable here without buying online, sometimes from overseas. The only things in the original list I can get locally is baking soda and essential oil. I think it's a shame that these skills are being lost, along with even the possibility of keeping them going. But I don't see the point of ordering from overseas and having to get ingredients that have been flown in at great expense. The net result is not cheaper, and after you've factored in the air transport, it's not kinder to the environment.

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Tyche Shepherd

You should be able to get washing soda in any big supermarket or hardware store ,it is often called soda crystals but basically you are looking for sodium carbonate .

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Ramonna Villota

Great post Mocksoup....

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Mocksoup Graves

Lewis, do you have anything like Dr Bronner's soap? I have heard that works well, but I don't have any.


This is the grated Fels Naptha