Care · All year
Laundry Soap
Grated plain soap, washing soda, and baking soda. No borax, no fragrance, no optical brightener.
This is how our household cooks, washes, and thinks. It is not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for a midwife or a doctor.
15 minutes · About 4 cups, enough for many loads
“She watches over the activities of her household and is never idle.”
Ingredients
- 1 cup grated plain tallow soap, or a plain castile bar, dried
- 2 cups washing soda
- 1 cup baking soda
Method
- 1
Grate a cured plain soap bar and let the flakes dry so they do not clump. Do not use a frankincense or myrrh bar. Scent does not belong in the family's wash.
- 2
Stir the flakes with the washing soda and the baking soda. Washing soda is sodium carbonate, a mineral salt. It is not borax. It is harsh to eyes and to bare skin, so mix with a spoon, not your hands, and label the jar. Store it where children cannot mistake it for sugar.
- 3
Use 2 tablespoons for an ordinary load. In a cold wash, dissolve that scoop in a cup of hot water first and pour the liquid in. Undissolved soap flakes can cling to clothes.
From the kitchen
- If you want a rinse, put white vinegar in the fabric-softener compartment. Do not mix vinegar into this jar. Acid and soap undo each other.
- This is soap, not a laboratory detergent. Very dirty work clothes may want the oxygen booster on the next card. Wool and silk want neither the washing soda nor that booster. Wash those by hand in cool water with a little of the plain grated soap only.
My note
Kept on this device, beside the recipe, for the next time you cook it.
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