Green Laundry

The Professor and I have been trying to go green; we've done the basic things like anyone else (recycling, reducing trash, etc.) and have been branching out into some of the less basic things, such as the worms. One of the areas I've been trying to make more earth friendly is our cleaning products; this isn't a huge concern, as my housecleaning regimen usually consists of shoveling up what's on the floor, and occasionally swiping at something with some spray and a rag. Laundry, however, needs to be done on a more regular basis (who is wearing all of these clothes??) or we all end up wearing those forgotten items which end up at the bottom of the drawer for a reason; so I dug around on the web and found some recipes for laundry detergent. I was a bit skeptical about how well it would work, and to my very pleasant surprise it works great.

I found there are basically 2 recipes on the web - 1 for liquid and 1 for powder. The liquid required cooking and increased storage space, so naturally, being lazy efficient, I chose the powder.

The recipe is:
1 bar grated soap (I use Ivory - Fels Naptha is supposed to be good, but I couldn't find it anywhere locally):


1 cup borax:


1 cup washing soda - I had to ask for my grocery store to stock this for me, but depending where you live it may be easier to find:


As you can see, the process for making the detergent is extremely high-tech, involving an old box grater and a plastic cup that I marked off in 1/2 cup increments. I then pour all the ingredients into a ziploc bag and shake it really well; it helps to mix the ingredients and breaks up the soap a bit.

We put in 2-3 Tablespoons for a large load (our building has those giant industrial washers) and it seems to do a good job. The clothes look clean, and I haven't heard any stray comments about body odor, so I think we're good.