Housecleaning 101, lesson 2

Product: Arm and Hammer Washing Soda

Heard of it?
It's in the fabric softener section of your cleaning/detergent aisle at any grocery store.

Price: about 2 or 3 dollars

Uses: Amazing laundry detergent booster. Add a 1/4 cup to a really soiled load of clothes to brighten and really clean, not just cover up with perfumes.
You can also use it to clean essentially anything. It's a "green" cleaner and can be used in bathrooms and kitchens alike.

What do I use it for?
My hypoallergenic laundry detergent. I think I've finally perfected my recipe.

I know what you're thinking, and yes, it is way worth the time and effort.
I originally started making my own laundry detergent because Lillie started getting these weird rashes that wouldn't go away with any cream, over the counter or perscription. After realizing the problem could be partly due to our Tide laundry detergent (which I love), I made my own soap, and the rashes went away.

Now of course you can always go out and buy All Free and Clear and achieve the same results, but to make a 5 gallon bucket of the homemade stuff ends up costing $2.70 per 5 gallon bucket, whereas All will run you atleadt $15 for the same amount of loads.

Alright, alright. Here's the simple, perfected, hypoallergenic recipe.

1 bar of hypo. bar soap (i use Dove) -grated like cheese
2 cups of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
1 1/2 cups Oxy Clean (also hypo. version)
5 gallon bucket
Water

After grating the soap, disolve it in a pot of 3 cups of water, stirring constantly. It should take about 4 or 5 minutes.

Add other ingrediants to the bucket, including dissolved soap, then fill up with warm water.

This is important:
Stir bucket of detergent every 15 minutes for 2 hours. I find it makes it less clumpy.

To use:
Add 1 cup of detergent to every load.
Don't freak out when you get your clothes out and they don't smell like mountain breeze, or fresh linen. They're not suppose to smell like anything, that's how you know they're really clean.

And that wraps up lesson 2! If anyone has another recipe or tries this one, let me know!

(i understand that lots of recipes use Borax, but everytime I added it, the rashes came back. If you don't have a oroblem with that, go ahead and add some Borax- about 1/2 cup)