Wednesday, January 11, 2012

SOAP noodle soup

Home made laundry soap is all the talk lately, have you noticed? So much so, that it is as if those who are not making their own, are somehow irresponsible. I began to feel guilty every time I bought a big jugO'Tide (I know, I have guilt issues),and I caved to blog pressure. So I went a googling, and found a laundry soap recipe, and went for it.

There were only 3 ingredients, how hard could that be?? All 3 were at my local Publix super market...cool! The recipe said after all was said and done, each load would only cost 1 cent! That sounded GREAT to me, and I specifically chose a recipe that made only one gallon, because I knew I didn't have containers to put several gallons into, or a space to store them.


The Fels Naptha was easy to grate, and then I measured out, and poured into the water, both the washing soda  and Borax. Easy peesie lemon squeezie I thought. As I stirred my soap soup I grinned as the thrill of victory set in, and I planned the blog post where I would tell you all what a happy and successful home maker I am.

 
Then I remembered the laundry, and I quickly set off to get it done. Soon after the first load went in, my trusty front loader started singing warning signals that something wasn't right. She was literally spewing water out the front of the machine where the soap dispenser was housed. The bottom drawer, full of beach towels, had already filled with water, and there was about an inch on the floor. We have been in this house for less than 4 months, and this is the second time we have flooded the laundry room. We aren't going to talk about the first.....no, we aren't...I said no!
Pride goes before the fall I often quote, and I and my soap soup were falling hard! I called out to my resident handy man, and after shop vac-ing my mess, he set out to find the problem. Apparently my machine was rejecting the water, because her pipes were blocked.
Now in an effort to fully disclose, I must add that there was a broken piece of plastic lodged in her parts, acting as a sort of dam, where the soap had coagulated preventing the water from flowing into the washer, as opposed to into the laundry room (how's that for a run-on sentance Mrs. Rawls?). The soap was however the real culprit, who knows how long the piece of plastic had been hanging out comfortably in the bowels of the white Samsung.

I went back to the beginning and read in the recipe that I was supposed to wait 24 hours before using the soap. The next morning I had a gallon of what could have been mistaken as lard! I scraped it into a larger pot, added 2 gallons of water, and heated it up. The recipe said it should look like noodle soup, and it did. 24 hours later it was jello, hard jello. I added another gallon of water, heated it up, noodle soup again. In case you have lost count, we now have 4 gallons of soap soup, in a pot, on my stove. 24 hours later.......noodle soup, 4 gallons of soap noodle soup.

Easy peesie lemon squeezie.

Anybody need some laundry soap??



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3 comments:

Monica Wilkinson said...

You made me smile this morning! Ok, confession: I have avoided (so far) the laundry soap making craze. I've felt guilty too only because it seems the thrifty thing to do - however getting soap on sale is cheap too! Number 1: where to store the gallon (or four) of soap? Number 2: The gooey looking glop does not appeal to me. Need there be a number 3? :) So, have you had any success with your soap?

Katie said...

I used to make that soap too. I never could get the consistency right.

Also, My clothes were just NOT getting as clean (I have a top load washer).

I might suggest making the dry version of the soap next time. It works a little better, but I have found that Arm and Hammer liquid laundry soap works about as well as anything, and it is a third the price of tide.

I also did not have somewhere to store 5 gallons of soap! :)

asnipofgoodness said...

Glad to have given you some amusement Monica :). The soap soup seems to be working fine, good thing because I'll be using it until 2014 :). No, I don't like the gooey glop either!I think your aproach is the way to go!
Katie, thanks for the advise:) unfortunately I don't think I'll be making any more soap any time soon, liquid or dry, I kinda have enough:) Good tip on the arm and hammer though, maybe it will still be around in a few years:)