EcoNerd

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. It may surprise you, especially those of you who have seen me leaving the local grocery store with twin 12 packs of Bounty Select-a-size paper towels balanced on my shoulders like an old-timey hunter with a fresh kill. I’m an EcoNerd. I am, really. I love to work my hands in the earth, I am thrilled by the notion of compost and solar power leaves me twitterpated. It’s all connected to this part of me that enjoys making things, not just taking things. It’s why I recycle vintage items into art, bake my own bread, freecycle, thrift, recycle.. well, you get the picture.

Yes, I am well aware that the diapers I encase my son’s butt in are horrible for the landfill but until you send me a dirty diaper washing drying and prefolding fairy, I’m going to cling to his Luvs like spandex on my ass. Oh, let me replace that queasy mental image with something more ponder-worthy:

Ho-made laundry soap. No really, that last picture isn’t a bucket of phlegm. My husband has a grand plan to begin irrigating our backyard with the wash water. It will save us a nice chunk of change, green up our yard and contribute to the preservation of the local aquifer. I feel that it would be more Eco-responsible of me if I knew exactly what I was putting back into the ground water supply, thus my quest began.

When I first stumbled on the recipe I was skeptical, so I Googled. Hmmmm, lots of people were writing about it, so I thunk on it some more. My favorite laundry soaps are ones like ECOS, , they contain plant derived cleaners. Could I do that? Eh, why the hell not?

98% of the recipes I mined up all called for something called Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap. If you aren’t familiar with it, let’s just say it’s hardcore. My mother used it to eradicate Georgia Red Clay stains from my sister’s uniforms. I have learned, however, that me and Fels Naptha aren’t too friendly. Don’t get me wrong, it works stain miracles but one day I grabbed the bar with my bare hard to scrub at a particularly heinous stain and shrieked like a 13 year old girl who just caught sight of Sanjaya getting mowed down by a bus. It was like shaking hands with a Portuguese Man-of-war. The idea of that sensation all over my body isn’t an appealing one, so I turned to my plant derived cleaners and decided to use a Bar of Kirk’s Original Castile Soap.

That first picture is me shredding my bar of Kirk’s with an mid century shredder doo-hickey that came straight out of The Hubster’s grandfather’s kitchen. I used the entire bar and put the shreds into a pot with 6 cups of water, heating it at medium until the soap melted.

Next, unable to reach a consensus across the bloggosphere as to whether it was 1/2 or 1 cup I compromised and added 3/4 cup of Borax and 3/4 cup Washing Soda. Look at picture 2, those are the boxes. Take note that it actually says “super washing soda” and not baking soda (I found both of these products in the laundry isle of my local grocery store, though in some areas I hear washing soda is harder to procure then crack, you should move). I stirred and stirred and cussed and broke up clumps until everything dissolved (ok, this didn’t take that long. I am just seriously impatient).

Lacking a 2 gallon receptacle, I trotted out the five gallon bucket. In said pail, I dumped 4 cups of HOT water and the stove top soapy concoction. After a few good stirs I added in 22 cups of water (about 1 gallon plus 6 cups). At this point I also added in 70 drops of grapefruit essential oil which seems to have been a fruitless (ark ark ark) effort. It would have probably taken the whole ounce to make a sniffing impact and that would negate all money savings. Then I stirred some more. I let the whole shebang sit for 24 hours, marked by an occasional vigorous stirring.

*let us take a brief aside to remind those of you with children and animals to not leave this bucket on the floor. It is entirely too enticing. Your dog will be belching bubbles and lord knows we don’t need any kiddos face first in a five gallon bucket – NOT GOOD. I have mine sitting on top of my dryer. To keep things tidy I laid out a junk towel and placed the bucket on there*

After 24 hours it resembles a runny snotty gel type solution, sometimes referred to as an ‘egg noodle soup’ look. YUM. You use about 1/2 a cup per load, a little more for ginormous loads and less for smaller loads.

It worked. I used it on The Hubster’s stinky nasty work undergarments and everything smells normal – no lingering monkey butt funk. Will it replace my regular detergents? Not entirely. One thing commercial detergents have that this doesn’t, are fabric brighteners. I’m figuring I’ll use regular laundry detergent every few loads to make sure that my clothing remains my favorite shades of eyeball frying color. Overall, this will save me money and allow me to feel less hinky about what I am dumping back into Mother Earth. Hazzah! Experimental success! I hope I’ve inspired someone else out there to give it a shot. Now will someone help me shove my inner Martha Stewart back in her box?