Home-made Washing Liquid

This recipe is fantastic as it uses just 3 ingredients (other than water) and each ingredient is useful for many other things around the house.

This week on my FaceBook feed appeared a how-to for making washing liquid. I'm so excited to tell you about it as it has made a huge difference to my laundry.

I wanted to make it as soon as I saw it as I had all the ingredients just laying around the house... but did I have a tub? Check Honey's shed... Yes, we are on the money. He has a few re-purposed ex-food buckets with a fantastic seal.

If you are wondering, the recipe is by Bush Flour Herbals and the link is here.

Pros

Price, it works out about 13c per load (and that is not with buying castile soap in bulk... you could possibly nearly halve the price again with the right deal). If you don't have a thermo-type machine no worries the original recipe does not use one. It is fantastic as a pre-wash soaker.

Just remember; it is really not a "brightener" it is good for soaking out periferal stains and should be soaked for no longer than about a day-ish; I'm not sure on exact times, however, I can tell you from experience this week that three days is too long. I popped some in to soak on Wednesday and it smelled revolting by Friday night... like a swamp. I was used to soaking things in store-bought  nappy-soak which can be right for up to a week (when I was a nanny we used to do chux and socks for up to a week... not together). That is not for this solution.  Keep the soaks brief.  

Cons

Castile soap can be quite expensive to buy, if you are short on cash. However one $20L should last about 3.25 lots at about 50 loads per bucket. It is rather bulky, I stick it in my tubs so I don't have to bend down much, and the bucket takes up most of the tub room. If you don't have a Thermo-machine, you will need a stick blender  ;may not be a problem for you) or a whisk and some elbow grease.

Thermomachine method

1. Take your Thermo-device jar and pour about 2 cups of of lukewarm water in, it should reach the 500mL mark
2. Add the bicarbonate soda and washing soda.
3. Add more water to cover the sodas (about 1.5L altogether is good)
4. Set the timer for 2 minutes, speed 5 and blend the mixture until it is fully smooth.
5. Pop your mixture into the bucket 
6. Using your jar to measure (3x 2L of tap water into the bucket), fill your bucket up to the 7.5L mark with tap water (any temperature is fine).
7. Add the castile soap, and stir with a long-handled spoon.
8. Using the funnel, pour into your containers. (I kept it in the bucket)
9. Add your essential oil of choice. (I used eucalyptus)

I used my Kogan thermoblend 1 to make this recipe. The residue would have washed out with water and  cloth, however I was doing a load of dishes in the dishwasher and chose to pop it in with the rest. It came out sparkling clean.