PINTASTIC!!
Can I get a WOOT-WOOT!?!!
Yes, I'm super excited about how well this turned out, I have about 12lbs of laundry soap (1/2 has fragrance in it for us, 1/2 is for Aubrie's cloth diapers without the fragrance)....from the original instructions, if I do 6 loads of laundry a week this should last 14-16 months. Since I divided my batch in half I'm assuming I'll get 7-8 months out of each batch...we'll see. The total I spent at WalMart to get everything (including the 2-5gallon buckets) was $36, the buckets were $3 each....so the cost of the actual soap was $30. Two reasons I chose this recipe was because we have a high efficiency 'he' washer and I it can be used on cloth diapers (minus one ingredient).
Shopping list/ingredients-
1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax- Found in the detergent aisle
1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda- Found in the detergent aisle
1 (3 lb) Container of OxyClean- Found in the detergent aisle. (This is optional but I love using is in my laundry)
2 (14.1 oz) Bars of Zote Soap- Found in the detergent aisle (we did one pink and one white...there was only one pink bar at the store. The original recipe said you can also use Fels Naptha)
1 (4 lb) Box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda- Found in the detergent aisle and the cooking aisle (You could also get two 2 lb box)
1-2 (55 oz) Bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener- Found in the detergent aisle. I imagine you can use any fabric softener as long as its in a solid form (not a liquid) like the new Downy Unstopables.
1 5 gallon bucket with lid- or any container that is large enough to store all the extra soap.
LETS GET STARTED....YAY!!
First thing you have to do is turn the Zote bars into a crumble. For this part you have a couple different options (1) use the small side of a cheese grater (2) Use a food processor (3) cut the bars into 4 equal parts and place in the microwave {this is what I did, so I explain more}. I don't have a food processor, but I'd bet this is the fastest and easiest way to crumble the soap, and looking back, Alston said he would have rather used the cheese grater. The most time consuming part is prepping this soap, once that's done you are basically done. From start to finish is took us (poor Alston had to help with this project too...Lil Miss got hungry mid-way through) about 1 hour.
I cut each bar into 4 parts and placed on a dinner plate
I have a "30 sec" button on my microwave, which is what I used for this part. When you place the soap in the microwave it grows into the cotton candy looking mass...very cool looking, but EXTREMELY HOT! Make sure to use a pot holder when handling the plate.Going in 30 sec intervals it took about 3 minutes to get all the soap to turn into the fluffy stuff.
Use a spatula to scrap the fluffy mound into another bowl (since I had two buckets, I put the fluffy stuff in the other bucket). It has to be completely cooled before you start handling it...remember... it's HOT.
Not all of the soap "fluffed" the first time, so I scraped off the fluff and smashed the bars down (it looked like mashed potatoes and put it back into the microwave, again going in 30 sec intervals. I did this back and forth till all the soap fluffed.
Now's the fun part....CRUMBLING. If you have any little helpers, they would love this part!! I initially started out using my hands, but I found it was a lot easier to use my Pampered Chef Mix n Chop....yay for Pampered Chef. If you have a food processor, I totally use it again for this part.
Once the soap is all crumbled (it's okay if there is some small clusters, they will dissolve in the water) its time to add everything else. Following the original instructions, she suggested alternating each ingredient then mixing/stirring them because once everything is in once bucket it is VERY hard to mix everything (again...having 2, 5 gallon buckets came in handy again. We dumped the soap back and forth between the two buckets to further mix everything).
I put that Mix n Chop to good use for this project.
My lil helper
Since I'm also going to be using this soap for Aubrie's cloth diapers I had to split the batches up before I added the fabric softener/fragrance. Here's our soap with the Purex Crystals in it (I saved the bottle the crystals came in and the tub the Oxi-clean was in)
Final product all mixed up and ready to be used...and it smelled SO good. A little candy like.
I don't plan on keeping 2 5-gallon buckets next to the washer, so I'm recycling a few of the bottles. For our soap I used the Purex Crystals bottle.
The instructions for using the soap is that is takes 1 Tablespoon for a small load of clothes and 2 Tablespoons for a large load...how freaking AWESOME is that?!!? So to make it easier on me, I put 1 TBSP in the cap and marked the level with a Sharpie, then added another TBSP and marked the 2 TBSP line.
I did the same thing with the Oxi-Clean scoop for Aubrie's soap.
My final product in small containers that I can keep right next to the washer.
Here is the extra that will be stored away for "Refills".....
The very first load of laundry with the new soap.....had Alstons work clothes in it. I figured if it can pass the "Husband Test", it's got to be a success. I texted him this morning and asked what he thought of the new soap. He said "I can't tell a difference, so I'd say that's a good thing". SCORE!!!
Alston said that people are going to start thinking we are "tree huggers".... homemade soap, cloth diapers. I laughed at him and said "No...your wife is just very money conscious".
HERE is the original recipe I found on Pinterest.
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