Homemade Laundry Stain Remover

We mostly use homemade laundry detergent, vinegar, and no dryer sheets to avoid dangerous chemicals in our laundry.  During my times of investigating if the expensive detergents worked better than the homemade soap, I found the only thing to mattered was whether stains were treated with stain remover or not.  So, my stain remover, I have kept...until now!

I thought I was going to have to use ammonia or some other harsh ingredients due to all the stain remover recipes I had found.  Somewhere, I came across this suggestion.  Oh, and how simple it is!  Why...do I not think of these things on my own? 

What you'll need:

1 bar of soap (I chose a plain white natural homemade bar) 

water -2-5quarts depending on your preference

What to do:

1. Grate the soap.

2. Put it in a pan along with the water.  If you're not sure how much, start with 2 quarts.  You can dilute it more later.  I recommend going ahead and using 4 quarts 'cause uts going to be thick.

3. Heat up the mixture until all the soap is melted.

4.  After it has cooled a bit, pour it into the container of your choice.

In a day, this will be a gel (a very thick gel if you use 2 quarts of water).  Use it like it is, or dilute it more.

Here, on the right is the stain remover before I diluted it.  You can see that, after a few second, the middle is oozing down to the lid.  On the left, the gel has been diluted more and it flopped down to the bottom as soon as I turned in upside down.  Its still thick, but squirtable. 

I will dilute the jar on the right when I need to.  That means I will have made over 4 quarts of stain remover for the price of a bar of soap.  AND- we'll avoid the cancer causing ingredients in store bought stain removers! The measley spray bottle of stain remover I've been using costs more and it only has 30 ounces in it.  Compare that to over 128 ounces for less money.

Does it work, though?  It has been working for me.  I squirt some on the stain, smear it around or scrub it with a brush.  I will let you know if, in the long run, it turns out to be dissapointing.  So far, I've had great results.

Another thing to make from scratch!
Update:  Our son's nose bled on his pillow one night.  (He has frequent nosebleeds depending on the weather and his health.)  We meant to soak it right away, but we were in a hurry and forgot.  The blood had set for two day on the pillow- we finally covered the spot with this homemade stain remover.  After a few hours, rinsed it off with water and the blood rinsed right off!  TOTALLY!    We have cleaned many spots of blood with zero results- now we have a winner!

Homemade Spray Cleaners and Powder Laundry Soap

 Quick and Easy AND Cheap

I used to use vinegar and water for my general spray cleaning needs, which works pretty good.  But we have 4 children...and I needed a little more power.  My sister told me about her homemade spray cleaner and this website http://gnowfglins.com/2011/05/25/free-video-homemade-all-purpose-cleaner/. (There's a lot of very interesting info on her site if you wanna check it out.) I have been making it for a while now.  Its really been working well for us.  My current version is not all natural, but it could be with more effort. Here is the recipe (of course, you can tweak it):

Homemade Spray Cleaner: (measurements are approximate)

*3T rubbing alcohol
*Vinegar-just pour some in (optional: not in the original recipe)
*30 drops/1 teaspoon essential oils (lemon, tea tree, pine needle, ylang ylang, or a mixture pleasing to your snout).  Don't feel like you have to go buy essential oils for this, its not critical to the effectiveness of the cleaner.
*A little grapefruit seed extract is know to kill germs, but has no smell (optional: not in original recipe)
*3T liquid soap (I've been using store bought dish soap SO I only use 1T, but castille liquid soap would be healthier and you may need more like 3T.)
*Water

Pour the first 4 ingredients into a tall spray bottle.  Fill the bottle over half full with water.  Add the liquid soap and shake it up a little.  Last, add the more water to the top.  I do it like this to avoid massive amounts of suds in the bottle that would happen if I added the soap in before pouring in any water.  But it doesn't really have any rules.   Shake before each use, essential oils want to float.

I like to make a gallon refill amount to make life go more smoothly.  Shake gallon container before refilling the spray bottle.

Window cleaner

This is not a secret by any means, but since I'm on the subject of cleaners, I thought I'd add a couple more.  For windows and mirrors (and whatever else I think needs it) I use half rubbing alcohol and half water.  No expensive Windex full of chemicals.

Pot scrubber cleaner

Again, not going to blow your mind- although it did mine when I first tried it.  When I scrub my scrambled egg pan and other stainless steel pots, I sprinkle on some baking soda, squirt a dab of dish soap and easily scrub off the mess!  Love it.  I fill empty shaker bottles with baking soda and keep one in the kitchen, and one in each bathroom to clean out the sinks.

Powder Laundry Soap

I posted before about homemade liquid laundry soap, but I guess I forgot to post about the powdered version.  I need some for laundry today, so why not post it?  It is quicker to make than liquid, and doesn't take up as much space, but I am thinking the liquid laundry soap lasts for more loads.  What do you think?

Here goes:

Ingredients:
*1 Bar of soap (any kind you wish except soap with lotion added-or so I hear.  I use my homemade soap.  This time, I gave eucalyptus a try.  It's supposed to keep spiders and ticks away. Fels Naptha is all the buzz for homemade laundry soap makers, I don't prefer it, though.  Go with your preferences.)
*1 Cup Washing Soda
*1 Cup Borax

Grate the soap.  Use a fine grater if possible.  But non-fine is fine, too.

Mix in the washing soda and borax.  Tell your children, contrary to their beliefs, you are not mixing grated cheese and sugar- borax is dangerous to ingest and soap is just plain nasty.

Extra step (which I find worthwhile)- blend the mixture in a food processor.  This tiny thing was already out so I used it, but using a big one would get the job down in a blink.  Wow!  It made the soap much finer, which made the ingredients blend better.

Extra Step (which I have never tried, so I don't know if its worth it)- add few drops of essential oils for scent.  My hypothesis is that the smell wouldn't last or be strong enough to notice, so why waste the pricey essential oils?  Anybody tried it?

Now, pour it into your container and label it. Keep it our of reach of small children since it has Borax in it.

2 Tablespoons per load should do it.  There won't be suds, but don't be deceived, suds aren't really what cleans things, they just make us feel better because we're used to them.  I hear this can be used in HE washers, too.  Easy. Done.

Feel free to share any cleaner recipes!  I love to learn new things.  

Homemade Laundry Soap

I've always enjoyed the smell of clean laundry.  I try to make wise choices about the chemicals we use in the house.  There are some cheap and easy options to at least reduce them. I had to evaluate our laundry detergent. I made some with Fels Naptha soap. I made some with Dove or something like that. It was cheaper, but the "chemical" aspect was still there. I bought some Charlie's Soap- which is very safe and I liked it just fine, but after buying it a few times, I felt a pain in my wallet. I switched back to Tide somewhere in there to see if it was any better at cleaning the clothes- it wasn't, really. (I only see cleaner clothes when I treat stains, it doesn't seem to matter which detergent.)

So, when I ran out of Charlie's the last time, I remembered I now make my own natural bar soap- so I could use THAT in homemade laundry detergent! Wow, that took me a long time to figure out, since I've been making soap for a long while now. So, here's a quick version of how to make Homemade Laundry Soap (There are a lot of recipes out there):


#1. Grate a bar of soap. You can use any kind you'd like. (Even if it is not natural, your homemade laundry detergent- per load- will save you a LOT of money.)

#2. Melt the grated soap in a pan of water until ALL the soap is melted and you have a pan of slimy water.

#3. Pour the slimy HOT water into a buck- 5 gallon if you have it. Add 1Cup of Borax and 1 Cup of Washing Soda. I did not have any at the moment, so I used baking soda. They say DON'T use baking soda- but I DO...sometimes. Stir. (I recently learned how to make BAKING soda into WASHING soda, thanks to a friend)

#4. Add more hot water to make the bucket full and stir. (I've actually been making a more concentrated laundry soap by using a 2.5 gallon bucket. Then, I just add less laundry soap per load.)

#5. It is supposed to thicken a little if you leave it overnight. Then shake it and pour it into whatever container is convenient to use.

#6. Opinions vary as to how much to use per load- Seems like 1/2 C to 1 C is a good range for the 5 gallon recipe.

It hasn't made the folding and putting away any easier, though.

Update:  I'm soon going to try the dry powder version of homemade laundry soap- to take up less space.

Useful items in the home

There are a couple items I didn't realize how much I'd use until recently. Please don''t get mad at me, but I kill flies if they are in my home. I kill any bug that's in my home, actually. If it is a spider that has made a home right around my front entry.. I kill it, too. (Maybe that's why flies get into my home.) Anyway, it is not fun to have smashed bugs to clean up. I have found a better way.

We used to have a nice man come spray our home for bugs before I decided not to expose my babies to pesticides on a regular basis in the home. He told me that a sure way to kill a spider is to fill a spray bottle (almost all the way) with water. Then, add a couple squirts of dish detergent and shake it up. Spray it on the spider. It gets coated with the soap and dies soon after. I'm telling you, it worked.

I tried it on flies, ants, wasps, and more spiders...just try it, it works. No splattered bugs you have to clean up. Its best if the bug has landed on something. (Make sure you coat wasps and big spiders pretty good with 2-3 sprays.) If its not working, you need a little more soap. Oh, and don't spray it all over the kitchen while you're making supper. Food doesn't taste good soapy. But there is one more use for it...its handy to spray on dishes with stuck-on food.

I've also found many uses for our exercise ball. (Unfortunately, exercise has not been one of them.) When I was far into my pregnancy, it was the ONLY way I could find some comfort. Sitting hurt my hips and back, standing hurt my hips and back. Getting up off the floor after folding laundry or reading our 2yo a book while he was on the toilet (trying to potty train) seemed almost impossible. I started doing those things while sitting on the ball instead and they became easier. Also, it is very nice to have during labor contractions. I used one in the hospital with two of our sons' births and then ours' here at home with the latest delivery.

Since then, I've found myself using it still for the whole reading-to-our-2yo-in-the-bathroom-while he-tries -to-go-potty thing. But, also for lightly bouncing our newborn to sleep late at night.

Well, if you're not pregnant, or there are no children in the home to bounce there is still a good use. Its nice to stretch your back over it. Someone gave us the one we have. Would I go buy an exercise ball if we didn't have one? I'm not sure, and we might put it back into storage since it takes up space in our little rooms. But it sure has been nice to have around.