Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Homemade Laundry Detergent Dispenser

Here's a great little gadget my mom discovered for storing and pouring her homemade laundry soap--the Coffee Mate creamer bottle.  They are pretty sturdy little bottles with a nice flip top lid and pour spout.  If you don't drink coffee, maybe you have a friend who would save a couple for you.  They fit nicely in the laundry cupboard also, better than the squatty plastic gladware bowl I was using.


And I've altered my recipe since the first post on it--here's the new one:
1 bar Fels Naptha soap shredded
1 bar Ivory shredded
2 cups washing soda
3 cups borax

That's it--almost the same as before.  I still use the generic crystal light drink mix tub to measure the amount for a load of wash--it is about 2 tablespoons.  I heap it and that's good for a load.  One batch of the above recipe lasts about a month around here.

Now off to do some more laundry. :)

6 comments:

The Girl in the Pink Dress said...

Ooooh...I like this idea! I'll steal it, thanks. I don't know why I didn't think of it.
The Girl in the Pink Dress

Cheryl said...

Great idea!

Momnerd said...

Is it actually cheaper than using regular laundry soap? And does it work as well?

Mariah said...

Good idea mom!
I make the liquid version and keep it in an old liquid Tide container. That way I can use the lid to measure. I like the liquid better because the powder version would never rinse all the way out. It uses up more space than the powder version does, but I make small batches at a time.

It's WAY cheaper than even the cheapest laundry detergent. I bought all the ingredients a while back and haven't bought laundry detergent in at least 6 months. And I still have most of my ingredients left over so I don't anticipate buying any for a long long time.

Heidi said...

Very interesting!... How do you shred the soaps? And where do you buy those things? I've never heard of some of them... Thanks!!

Angela said...

I have shredded the soaps with a manual style cheese grater (small shred) and also in my food processor. The fp is faster by far, but does leave some chunks as the end of the bar goes through the shredder.

The ingredients may be found at your grocery store in the detergent aisle or you might need to special order them (which could raise the final cost a bit). Ask at your store-the borax, washing soda, and fels naptha in my stores are usually hidden on the very bottom or the very top shelf in the laundry section, and some stores don't carry them all.