Many modern washing powders are far from ideal. Some are too expensive, others do not clean well enough, others have a strong fragrance, and others cause allergies. And in search of an environmentally friendly solution, housewives often come to the thought: shouldn’t they create a laundry detergent themselves? Moreover, all the main components are probably in any pantry. How to make powder from laundry soap, and what other ingredients should be included in its composition?
Mono-component powder
Laundry soap itself is a worthy alternative to washing powder. It contains no harmful impurities, it is inexpensive, does not cause allergies and is suitable for washing children's clothes. The soap does not foam too much, and for this reason it can be used in an automatic machine.
The method also has disadvantages, for example, the specific smell of the product (although it disappears after rinsing the items). Many people are afraid to use laundry soap when machine washing, as it leaves a thin residue on the walls of the drum. But the problem can easily be solved if you periodically wipe the drum and seal, and from time to time run a rinse with an empty tank. Once every 3 months, do a dry wash with a solution of vinegar, citric acid, baking soda or washing machine cleaner.
How to make powder from laundry soap? Grate the block on a coarse grater if you plan to wash it by hand and on a fine grater if you use an automatic machine. Both a new block and remnants will do. For 1 kg of laundry you will need 1 tbsp. l. soap shavings. Dissolve it in a glass of hot water, and when the mass becomes homogeneous, pour it into the compartment for loading washing powder.
DIY natural washing powder
Hello, dear friends!
Chemical industry enterprises, when producing household chemicals, do not particularly care about the health of consumers of their products. We must take care of ourselves by choosing what is safe and switching to natural laundry detergent that is easy to make with our own hands. Let's look at several recipes for preparing this household product and further verify in practice that it is not inferior in washing quality to industrial designs.
Take a look at how to make your own washing powder and see how easy it is! Moreover, you will not only protect your health, but also save money that you can spend on hobbies and pleasures!
With soda
Adding baking soda to laundry soap powder will give it bleaching properties. The basic recipe includes one cup of fine soap shavings and one and a half cups of baking soda. Mix the ingredients thoroughly and place in a container with an airtight lid - the detergent is ready. It can be improved if you add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to the mixture before loading it into the tray, and then mix thoroughly again. The powder and linen will smell fragrant. When washing in an automatic machine, you need to take 3 tbsp for one full load of the drum. l. funds or even less.
Adding baking soda to laundry soap powder will give it whitening properties.
Washing powder can be made more effective if you use activated soda instead of regular baking soda. To prepare it, just pour a pack of regular sodium bicarbonate onto a baking sheet and put it in the oven for an hour at 200 °C. This powder is suitable for heavily soiled items.
An even more powerful cleaning agent can be made using soda ash. It enhances the alkaline reaction and copes with stubborn old stains. To make 1 kg of washing powder, you will need 150 g of soap shavings, 500 g of baking soda and 400 g of soda ash. Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container, as soda ash quickly absorbs moisture from the air. This powder is no longer as safe for the skin of your hands, so if you wash by hand, use gloves. One machine wash cycle will require approximately 1-2 tbsp. l. mixtures.
Methods for creating detergent
Preparing the powder is as easy as shelling pears. There are a lot of recipes on the Internet - make as many as you like, adding your own innovations. In the meantime, let's consider the simplest and most accessible method.
To prepare washing liquid you will need 100 grams of household items. soap, three tablespoons of baking (or soda ash), four liters of water. If desired, you can add essential oil so that the resulting composition has a pleasant aroma.
How to make your own detergent? Grate laundry soap into a metal container and add a liter of water. Place the saucepan with soap on low heat and stir constantly until the shavings are completely dissolved. Baking or soda ash is dissolved in the remaining three liters of water so that the grains are completely dispersed in the water. As soon as the solution has cooled slightly, add water and soda solution to the soapy liquid and mix well until smooth. If it is necessary to add aromas, they are added at this stage. Tea tree, lemon, orange and grapefruit have very impressive aromas. The use of homemade cleaning compositions makes it possible to protect yourself and your loved ones from unnecessary contact with chemical compounds
The resulting mixture should cool naturally, after which the solution is mixed with a mixer to break up the lumps and give it a final, complete consistency.
Externally, after all the processes, the mixture becomes like a gel - it is laid out in containers and used when washing dishes, window frames, and refrigerators. In order to wash 5 kilograms of dirty laundry, you need to put 200 grams of this gel in the machine.
With soda and borax
Enriching washing powder with borax gives it a number of additional valuable properties. This component softens hard water, serves as a preservative, disinfects, and destroys mold and mildew. Borax can be purchased at a hardware store or pharmacy, where it is known as boric acid solution.
To prepare washing powder based on soda and borax, you will need a base - small shavings of laundry soap in the amount of 1.5 tbsp. The recipe also includes 1 tbsp. soda ash, 1 tbsp. borax, 0.5 tbsp. baking soda. Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight jar.
Read also: How to make a mold for homemade soap?
How to make soap from soap remnants at home?
Choosing a hypoallergenic laundry detergent
Simple composition
The general idea of saving is very simple. It is necessary to make an effective replacement for expensive powder from ingredients that would be very inexpensive. The key phrase is “effective replacement”; the homemade washing powder needs to be no worse than the powder that had to be abandoned, otherwise this saving option will simply lose its meaning. The most insistent on the Internet is a fairly simple recipe for washing powder, the only ingredients of which are soap and soda ash. We take:
- 100 g baby soap;
- 100 g soda ash;
- about 1 l. hot boiled water.
To prepare the powder, it is better not to use laundry soap instead of baby soap, since in this case the composition will be more aggressive and will have an unpleasant odor.
When preparing for the procedure of preparing powder from soda ash and soap, open the windows in the room, isolate the room in which you will prepare the powder from the rest of the rooms in the house by closing the door. Take an unnecessary pan in which you no longer plan to cook food, a spoon and a grater. A regular spoon and grater will do; after washing, they can then be used for cooking. Let's do the following.
- We select the finest mesh cloth on a grater and use it to grind a piece of baby soap.
- Pour all the soap crumbs into a saucepan and place it over medium heat.
- Immediately pour the soap with a liter of hot water and begin stirring the mixture intensively.
- Without bringing the mixture to a boil, completely dissolve the soap. At the same time, make sure that no grains remain.
- Once the soap has dissolved, pour in another 0.5 liters of hot water.
- After about 10 minutes of intensive stirring, pour 100 g of soda ash into the soap solution. Don't stop stirring the mixture.
- As soon as the baking soda is completely dissolved in the soap solution, the recipe can be considered successfully implemented.
The most important thing is the final touch. The mixture should not be cooled sharply, but it should not be left on the fire either. To obtain a homogeneous laundry gel, it is necessary to cool the mixture gradually at room temperature. As a result, we will not get a powder, but an erasing gel with the properties of a good washing powder. True, it will be less effective, so the recipe needs to be modernized. How? Let's talk about this in the next paragraph.
With soda and vinegar
Vinegar in homemade laundry detergent brings its properties closer to professional cleaning products. This substance is a universal conditioner; it preserves the color of bright things, prevents the appearance of soap stains and disinfects water. After washing with vinegar, things become soft and less prone to wrinkles. Vinegar also whitens fabrics, removes sweat stains, perfume odors, fruit juice and foundation.
To prepare washing powder with vinegar, grate 2 pieces of soap on a fine grater, mix with 1 tbsp. baking soda and 1 tbsp. soda ash. Vinegar is added last in the amount of 2 tbsp. l. Mix the paste thoroughly and store in a tightly closed jar.
You may have noticed that here are basic recipes for making cleaning products. But knowing how to make powder from laundry soap, you can always improve the composition if you add a few drops of your favorite essential oil or other unusual ingredients when washing. The main thing is that using such products, you can be sure that you care not only about the cleanliness of your home, but also about the health of your loved ones.
Recipe
The preparation process is very simple, and the ingredients do not require any special processing.
- Pieces of soap are grated on a fine grater or mixed in a blender. If you prefer the second option, it is better to cut it into small pieces before chopping. To prevent the soap from smearing on the grater and the blender container, it is recommended to place it in the freezer for about half an hour in advance. There the pieces will harden and, after grinding, will turn into a crumbly mass. It is not recommended to grate laundry soap on a coarse grater, as you will end up with thick strips that may not completely dissolve during washing and will leave a mark on your clothes.
- You need to add baking soda and soda ash to the soap and mix everything. It is not recommended to add essential oil at this stage, as it will simply dissipate during long-term storage of the powder. That's all, homemade soap and soda washing powder is ready.
- Immediately before automatic washing, the required amount is poured into the powder compartment, approximately 3-4 tbsp. l. for 4 liters of water. Now it’s time to add essential oil - a couple of drops can be poured directly on top of the product poured into the washing machine or into a basin with soaked laundry. This powder is also perfect for hand washing; it does not leave streaks and evenly removes dirt.
- It is worth taking into account that for washing in a washing machine, the powder from laundry soap and soda must be well ground to a consistency similar to coarse sand. Then it will completely dissolve when washed at any temperature.
- Laundry soap and soda are alkalis and acids, and although the prepared powder can be considered completely environmentally friendly, it is a product of household chemicals, so it won’t hurt to protect your skin with rubber gloves.
- For storage it is necessary to prepare a dry, tightly closed container. A screw-on container left over from some kind of detergent, or an ordinary glass jar, is quite suitable here.
This powder can even remove stains from wine and ketchup. Reviews from housewives indicate that it effectively fights stains from chocolate and coffee, but with stubborn greasy stains the situation is somewhat different.
It is enough to pour stain remover onto the stained area and add 100 ml of it to the powder compartment, and not a trace of grease will remain.
