Homemade Laundry Detergent

This past week, I have tried my hand at making homemade laundry detergent. This project was a great success. I am a mother of four children under six years of age, so you can imagine how much laundry I do on a daily basis. We also use cloth training pants for our two year old, and cloth diapers for our one year old.

We have a Whirlpool Cabiro high efficiency top load washing machine. I searched online for a low sudsing detergent recipe. I found that most of the recipes were similar, so I combined several of them and came up with one that made the most sense to me.

My Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe




I grated one bar of Ivory Soap.



Then I pruned my Sharon Roberts Lavender. I boiled my cutting in six cups of water for about five minutes, to add natural fragrance to my detergent.



I removed the lavender cuttings from the water, then I added my grated soap and whisked until it was completely melted.



I pour three gallons of water (including the six cups of the lavender scented soap water) into a six and a half gallon bucket, then I stirred thoroughly until it was combined. I then added one cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda and one half of a cup of 20 Mule Team Borax, one at a time stirring thoroughly after each addition. I added two more gallons of water, and stirred again. Then I let the solution sit overnight.

I have been using the detergent for a little more than a week, and it works great. My clothes are clean, and they smell wonderful. The recipe also worked very well with my machine. The consistency of the detergent is almost that of raw egg whites, it is kind of slimey. I don't mind because it works well, I am saving money, and I am not filling our earth with plastic bottles.

It took me less than thirty minutes total to make five gallons of detergent. That is about the same amount of time it would take me to drive to the store and buy one bottle of detergent. I was going to take photos of the actual process of making the detergent, but my three oldest daughters were very interested in what I was doing. I explained to them how to make the detergent and why it is important to reduce our consumption of goods, I also explained how making your own detergent is better for the earth. It was a very busy thirty minutes, and there was no time for photos.



I add one half cup of detergent to my wash. I put the detergent in a water proof container so I can shake it up before I use it.

South Side Market

Today my husband and I ventured out to the South Side Market in search of plants to complete our garden. The South Side Farmers Market is located at 3300 Warsaw Street right here in Fort Wayne. Beginning in the 1920s, it is one of Fort Wayne's oldest markets. The market runs from the Saturday before Easter through the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and is open from 7am - 1pm.



Of course the market offered produce, vegetable plants, fresh cut flowers, beautiful decorative plants for the flower garden, and my favorite herbs.



We bought sweet bell pepper plants, summer squash, zucchini, roma tomato plants, jalapeno pepper plants, rosemary, spicy basil, lavender, thai pepper plants, and most exciting of all strawberry plants.

The vendors were friendly and knowledgeable. They had a wonderful variety of plants.

My husband and I went in search of plants, but there was a lot to distract us from our mission.



Vintage kitchenware, various collectibles, and even an antique hand crank washer wringer were some of treasures we saw at the market today.



There was even an old time lunch counter with a small dining area surrounded by beautiful flowers. We will definitely be visiting this market again.