Most laundry detergents that fill store shelves contain phosphates, surfactants, and other harmful impurities. Laundry detergents with such additives, when used regularly, can provoke an allergic reaction in the form of hives or a runny nose. Sometimes a person cannot determine for a long time where he has manifestations of atopic dermatitis, but it turns out that this is a reaction to caustic washing powder. Why risk your health by washing your bedding and underwear with chemicals when you can make your own laundry detergent from laundry soap and baking soda?
Rinsing after washing with commercial detergent helps to wash out chemical residues only if you expose the laundry to this procedure several times and do it very carefully. As for the powder prepared by oneself, after washing with such a product, there will be no extraneous odors and particles of chemicals on the linen. Laundry soap has always been the best cleaning and washing alkaline product, and baking soda is known for its bleaching properties. Washing powder from laundry soap for an automatic machine with the addition of soda is no less effective than purchased, and besides, it is absolutely harmless.
What you need to prepare the powder
The recipe for making laundry detergent at home is quite simple and does not require much money and time. For this you will need:
- 1.5 bars of 72% laundry soap;
- soda ash - 800 g;
- baking soda - 1 kg.
This amount of components is enough to get 2 kg of homemade washing powder.
If you want to first make sure that this is a good laundry detergent and dispel all doubts about this, you can make two to three times less powder, observing the above proportions.
Recipe
The cooking process is very simple, and the components do not need any special processing.
- Pieces of soap are rubbed on a fine grater or interrupted in a blender. If you prefer the second option, before grinding it is better to cut it into small pieces. In order for the soap to not be smeared on the grater and on the capacity of the blender, it is recommended to send it to the freezer in advance for about half an hour. There, the pieces will harden and, after grinding, turn into a crumbly mass. It is not recommended to rub laundry soap on a coarse grater, as thick strips will be obtained, which may not completely dissolve during washing and leave a mark on clothes.
- You need to add baking soda and soda ash to the soap and mix everything.It is not recommended to add essential oil at this stage, as it will simply disappear during long-term storage of the powder. That's it, your homemade soap and baking soda laundry detergent is ready.
- Immediately before the automatic wash, the required amount is poured into the powder compartment, approximately 3-4 tbsp. l. for 4 liters of water. Now it's time to add essential oil - a couple of drops can be poured directly on top of the product poured into the washing machine or into a basin with soaked laundry. This powder is also perfect for hand washing, it does not leave streaks and evenly removes dirt.
- It is worth taking into account that for washing in a washing machine, the powder from laundry soap and soda must be finely ground to a consistency similar to coarse sand. Then it will completely dissolve when washing at any temperature.
- Laundry soap and soda are alkalis and acids, and although the prepared powder can be considered completely environmentally friendly, it is a household chemical product, so it does not hurt to protect your skin with rubber gloves.
- For storage, prepare a dry, tightly closed container. A twisting container left after any detergent, or an ordinary glass jar, is quite suitable here.
This powder can even remove stains from wine and ketchup. The reviews of the hostesses indicate that he effectively fights stains from chocolate and coffee, but with stubborn greasy stains, the situation is somewhat different.
It is enough to pour a stain remover on the place of contamination and add 100 ml of it to the powder compartment, and there will be no trace of grease left.
Useful tips and tricks
Each housewife washes with a product prepared according to the above recipe, but with some adjustments. There are also a lot of tips about making powder. Some of them are really useful and worth paying attention to.
- Laundry soap does not leave such a pleasant smell as washing powder. This indicates the naturalness of the product, because the pleasant smell of a purchased laundry detergent is created due to chemicals. The numbers that can be seen on a bar of soap are the percentage of fatty acids in it. The higher this indicator, the better the smell and whitening properties. Therefore, in order to make washing powder from laundry soap and soda, it is better to choose a product with a 72% acid content. It should be noted that in the manufacture of darker pieces, animal fats are used, and light ones are vegetable. For this reason, housewives prefer light soap.
- Since it is more difficult to buy soda ash, the recipe for washing powder from laundry soap can be slightly modified, for example, use only food and activate it immediately before manufacturing. Baking soda removes stains and cleans dirt much more effectively. The activation process will take some time. To do this, you need to pour a pack of soda into a frying pan and ignite it for an hour at a temperature of 200 C. In this way, you can activate the soda and remove extraneous odors from the oven, because this substance absorbs them.
- In a blender, the powder must be interrupted with great care and at low speeds so as not to break the knives.It’s better to rub it on a fine grater, 1.5 pieces is not so much, and the process will not take much time, but the resulting dry mixture will be more homogeneous.
- Some housewives advise adding orange and mint oil before washing. This combination creates a wonderful aroma that spreads throughout the bathroom, and after washing things have a fresh soapy citrus smell.
For washing, you can use ready-made powder from laundry soap. Recently, this tool can be purchased in many supermarkets.
After performing such simple manipulations, we get a 100% natural homemade eco-friendly laundry detergent, using which you can not worry about your health. Those housewives who have at least once tried to wash things with this self-made product are very satisfied and do not want to switch to purchased chemicals again.
