Troy here from the Hearty Hen House. I have recently been looking at ways to simplify my housework tasks and eliminate brand-name products with ingredient lists that make you feel like you need a Master’s in chemistry to be able to puzzle out. With more and more articles saying many of these mystery chemicals are hazardous to our health and well-being, I just decided to solve the issue by cutting the Gordian knot and making a laundry soap that was cheap, effective, and contained ingredients that I could wrap my head around.
This laundry soap has many nicknames, sometimes called Naptha Detergent, Naptha Wash, Washing Bubbles, and Old Home Soap, among many others, and it only has three ingredients. Those ingredients are Washing Soda, Borax, and Fels-Naptha.
Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate): Washing soda is a powerful cleaning agent. This naturally occurring substance is derived from the ash of sodium-rich plants and is known for its high alkalinity. The high pH level of washing soda enables it to cut through grease and stains effectively, making it a staple in many cleaning recipes. Additionally, washing soda can help soften water, allowing the other ingredients in the laundry soap to perform more effectively by preventing minerals from interfering with the cleaning process. Its ability to neutralize odors without the use of harsh chemicals further enhances the appeal of including washing soda.
Borax (Sodium Borate): Borax is a naturally occurring mineral mined from the deposits of ancient lake beds. It has a wide range of uses, from household cleaning to laundry, thanks to its mild antiseptic, anti-fungal, and water-softening properties. In laundry soap, borax converts some water molecules to hydrogen peroxide, a mild bleach, making it excellent for brightening and deodorizing clothes. Its gentle nature makes it safe for washing a wide variety of fabrics. Borax also helps to stabilize the washing soda and Fels-Naptha mixture, ensuring a consistent and effective cleaning product.
Fels-Naptha: This traditional laundry bar soap has been used for over a century to treat stains before washing. Made from a combination of plant and animal fats, Fels-Naptha is particularly effective at breaking down greasy stains and soil on clothing. When grated and mixed with washing soda and borax, it acts as a surfactant, reducing the surface tension of water and allowing it to penetrate and clean fabrics easily.
The recipe is straightforward: one cup each of the Borax and the Washing Soda, and one grated bar of Fels-Naptha. To my knowledge, you can even swap out the Fels-Naptha for any simple lye soap of your choice.
In this case, I am using a large jar with measurements on the side. I am doing it for two reasons: first, these measurement marks are plenty precise enough for this purpose, and second is because these are all considered to be caustic in some way, and even if they aren’t or are less dangerous than other ingredients, I am going to play it safe. So I make sure to only mix the ingredients in the sealed jar, and I grate the Fels-Naptha while wearing nitrile gloves just in case. I use an inexpensive fine grater I found online, used solely for grating soap.
When you first add the grated soap into the jar, you’ll notice that it seems much larger than the other two ingredients, but give it a quick shake with the lid on tight, and you’ll get,
something that looks much more reasonable and way more homogeneous.
I then add this to a larger jar that is easier to scoop from and use two or three tablespoons per load.
I run my clothes on the cold settings without doing anything special, and they always come out clean. What do I do about smell, though? The clothes just come out mildly clean, and some people aren’t super used to that, and I wasn’t either. Because I already use wool balls in my laundry, I just added a few drops of essential oil to the wool ball during the drying step, and the clothes came out smelling nice and fresh.
From my rough estimates, this option costs around eleven cents per load, and I only need to buy a new bar of soap every handful of weeks until the Borax and the Washing Soda run out.
I hope this gives you some ideas for other money and hassle-saving changes you can make in your house.