# Laundry soap



## bassmaster17327 (Apr 6, 2011)

I made the basic laundry soap recipe of washing soda,borax and zote soap and it worked well but that stuff might not always be available, would just a standard soap made for bathing work for laundry soap? what about to wash dishes?

For me the main goal of making my own soaps is to not have to buy stuff that might not be available in a shtf situation. The oils/fat would probable be available and I few pounds of stored lye would last several years but other ingrediants to make laundry and dish soap might be hader to get


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## Trisha in WA (Sep 28, 2005)

If you do not super fat your soap, you "can" use it for laundry, but you may not be happy with the results.


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## cmharris6002 (Jan 27, 2006)

> you "can" use it for laundry, but you may not be happy with the results.


Why? I know tons of people who make there own laundry soap and even sell laundry soap, myself included. Made with 0% superfat and a balance of coconut oil and tallow the results should be the same as laundry soap made with Zote. If you want optical brighteners add oxyclean to your recipe.


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## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

My homemade laundry soap does not do well in our hard water. If you have soft water, then homemade laundry soap should do well.


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## Sabrina67 (Mar 24, 2008)

We have super hard water and I have been using homemade detergent for 3 months. I do add oxyclean, and I have just started to notice a bit of dingyness. At first it was amazing. Everything was actually looking much cleaner. Then, it was like all of a sudden it was not doing as well. Will taking a month off and using a "store bought" detergent get rid of the dingyness? Maybe a 2 on one off schedule will help with savings and still leave me without the dingy look.  
I use the Fels Naptha too. Not too crazy abt the smell, but I have a dryer bar for that.


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## cmharris6002 (Jan 27, 2006)

That is soap build-up!! For hard water you need to add 1/2 cup vinegar to the rinse cycle


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## Sabrina67 (Mar 24, 2008)

Thanks, so if I am understanding. I can use the vinegar, with every load, it should take care of the build up.


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## cmharris6002 (Jan 27, 2006)

Yep, that should do the trick!!


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## bassmaster17327 (Apr 6, 2011)

Thanks for the advice, what is a super fat?


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## cmharris6002 (Jan 27, 2006)

Superfatting is adding more fat to your recipe than necessary for saponification. This gives the soap bar extra skin conditioning qualities. When you make your own soap you need to run the recipe through a lye calculator If you look at Number 4 -Super Fat & Fragrance on the link, you will see that the calculator has a default setting of 5 which is just right for most purposes. However, you don't want any extra fat for your laundry soap so you would need to change that value to 0%.


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## Tammy1 (Aug 31, 2011)

Sabrina67, 

I noticed the same thing when I used the laundry soap. I also made it with Fels Naptha. I wonder if that might be part of the problem. At first it seemed wonderful. My clothes were so much softer and felt cleaner. I do use vinegar in the rinse cycle. After about a year I notice the whites were dingy and make up was not being removed from the towels. I did switch to a stronger recipe but it was to harsh on the skin. Today I switch back and forth and the dingy is gone. I think my next batch I'll try a different soap.


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## MorelCabin (Jun 14, 2009)

If you have hard water maybe adding salt to your recipe might work better?


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## Rustaholic (Dec 1, 2007)

Doesn't the Borax in the mix help the hard water issue?
I am getting ready to mix up my first bucket of laundry soap.
Maybe I should double the Borax?????


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## Rustaholic (Dec 1, 2007)

Just wondering here,,,
If a batch starts out working good then starts working bad I wonder if there is enough mixing and shaking going on.
The instructions I have seen say to shake the bottle well before each use.


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