Turning Back the Tide

We do most of our grocery shopping at Fred Meyer, a Kroger subsidiary. It's not far from our house, it's the store where our son is employed, and usually isn't too unpleasant as far as the whole shopping experience goes.

It's not as inexpensive as the local Winco (warehouse type grocery full of really, really interesting people) but definitely less expensive than Safeway (with fewer annoying and spoiled, self absorbed people who drive their little cute cars with the engines that make that yuppity yuppity sound.)

If you're not a total obliviot, you've noticed the prices of just about everything in the universe going up. And up and up and up. No end in sight. If you can do basic math, you've also noticed that the nation's economy, despite lies "My economic program has brought us back from the edge of the abyss!!" from everyone involved, is in the toilet.
(Yes, I'm sorry, but you've been lied to by the Democrats. And the Republicans. And every other crooked, lying asshole with his or her hand in YOUR wallet, stealing from you and yours. Because taking your money and redistributing it is only fair, after all.)

Oops. This isn't supposed to be a political post.

I wanted to purchase an extra large box of Tide last time we shopped. And then I looked at the extra large price. $27.99. For friggin' LAUNDRY SOAP!?!! SERIOUSLY???

And I don't know about you, but when the package says 120 loads, it's usually more like 100. If you're lucky.

So I started looking here and there online about how to make laundry soap. I'd heard of it before but never been seriously interested.

And I found out it was just like the endless selection of dill pickle recipes that I've been looking up for Eric.

Oh sure, there are different ingredients... no one puts dill in their laundry or grates a bar of soap into their pickles... but the actual creation of recipes seems to be similar. Someone gathers together a bunch of ingredients. Looks them over, says, 'hmm, I think I'll make a batch of ________' and does. Sometimes the stuff works. Sometimes it doesn't.

So I saw there were a few basic ingredients in common with most laundry soap recipes. Some people like the gloppy variety, which can involve cooking soap, or not cooking soap and putting the end result into a bucket and scooping a bit of jelly into each load.

Others prefer the less slimy idea of different powders all mixed up. That idea sounded a bit better to me, too.

So I got washing soda, which is NOT the same as baking soda, borax, a bar of Fels Naptha soap, some knockoff oxyclean and some non-phosphate TSP. Total price about 15 bucks.

First I grated the bar of soap. It looked exactly like the cheese I grate for tacos. Exactly. I dumped half of it into a big Pyrex bowl. Then, I added about half a box of washing soda. Half a box of borax. About a cup of TSP. About a cup of knock off oxyclean. Stirred it all together. Looked at it doubtfully. Added the rest of the grated soap. Stirred some more. Yep, I said to myself, that looks about right.

Then, I got a load of stinky towels. Put 1/4 cup or so of my new soapy stuff in the washer, filled it full of water to see if the soap was dissolving okay (it was) and tossed in the towels. Ran them as usual.

Now one of the things I've been seeing in common with most make your own laundry soap recipes is the statement that 'you won't need fabric softener'.

What better way to take my soap on its inaugural run than on a load of stinky towels?

And as I write this, I am declaring it a conditional success. The towels are fluffy, they smell very fresh without perfume, and they're clean.

The load of shirts and underwear (mine) I washed.. likewise. Not that I ordinarily go around smelling my underwear, but people have done scarier things in the name of science, am I right?

So the 15 bucks I spent on ingredients? I used about half of what I bought. So there's enough for another batch, and technically, the batch I made was about $7.50.

I can't tell you exactly how much it made, but it filled up my largest pyrex mixing bowl and is currently sitting in a once-empty Tide box that held enough for 48 loads. And cost 14 bucks.

Except... I'm using a smaller amount per load than the scoop that came with the soap. I'll try to remember how many loads I get. And update you if it doesn't pass the ultimate test... Eric's really dirty work clothes.

Oh. And PS. There are no suds. This is okay. Suds are there to make you think it's working, they're not necessary to actually clean. So sayeth the web.