Laundry Soap

It all started on a camping trip.  We were camping at our favorite site at Lake St George in Maine.  A family came to spend the day with us (I didn't know this family too well then, but Mark went to high school with both of them).  I was pregnant for Silas at the time, so we had three young children and I think the other couple also had three young children.   Their son had a broken arm.  So as the visit went on, we started talking about the boy's broken arm.  The mother made the comment that this was his first visit to the doctor.  That totally stumped me.  How can you have a child and he's never been to the doctor?  What?  I started asking her tons of questions!  She was very gracious in answering all my many questions and suggested I listen to a series of tapes on health.

When we returned home, she began sending me tapes.  I'd listen to one, mail it back and the next one would be sent.  Some of them just totally shocked me and made such an impact on me!  I remember I would iron as I listened to them (Mark had to wear a dress shirt each day at that job,,YUCK!!).  I remember rewinding some and listening again and again!  This probably was the beginning of the "journey" into healthy living for us.

The one tape I remember the most and think about still was on all the toxins in the air and what we put into the air and breathe.  When we spray our pans with Pam type sprays,, all that spray in the cans stay in the air and tend to go down, right into the air our smaller children breathe.  I try and spray them outside.  

All the chemicals we put into our clothes to make them smell pretty and then we breathe them in all day as they're right up against us (not to mention how it's going into our skin too!).  This tape lesson was such an eye opener to me!  I did so much junk to our bodies and didn't even realize it! 

I make our own laundry soap.  This saves us money and I also know what's in the soap.This soap doesn't leave a strong, chemical, perfume type odor on the clothes, so if you like that, this won't be for you.

Here's what I use:  Borax soap, Fels-Naptha soap and Baking Soda (not the baking kind but the washing kind).  I also add essential oil for scent or make my own scent with the herbs.

This last batch I made 3 weeks ago and we had the woodstove still going.  I "melt" the Fels-Naptha soap in a pot of water on the stove.  I also put a pot of water with some lavender in it for some scent.   Once the soap is dissolved, I pour it into a 5 gallon bucket.  Then I add about a cup each of the baking soda and Borax and stir it up til I see it's dissolved.  Then I add water til the bucket is filled to the top and let it sit over night.  It thickens and separates so I give it alittle stir each time before I use it.  

I know what's in our soap and it saves us money and is a little better for our air.  If our clothes need a little more freshening up (like our towels and dish rags), I add white vinegar to the spot  in the washing machine where the fabric softener would go.  You can't smell the vinegar and it gets the smell out of the rags and towels.  No nasty chemicals being breathed in all day by the boys as their clothes are on them.   

(Note:  this was a bit of an eye-opener to see how much we go through.  I made this 3 weeks ago and it's almost gone,, so roughly 5 gallons of soap in a month!  Yikes!!)