As per my weird ingredients issue, I decided to make some laundry powder, a la Soulemama.
I've since learned that the best time and place for photographs in this small and dark house are just after noon in the living room perched on something high like the ironing board. Definitely not in the windowless laundry room at night with ugly flash. Apologies.
cost breakdown: this works out to approximately $0.16 per load. Regular detergents run about $0.70 per load. I could probably make it cheaper by using a less expensive soap, but this Dr. Bronner's peppermint stuff is quite lovely.
Like the bubble bath recipe, Soulemama's recipe for laundry powder is similar to many widely disseminated. Unfortunately it would've been considered a very inferior formula back when soap powders were prominent, because it's mostly alkali -- more alkali than soap! It's the sort of mixture that doesn't clean very well and is hard on fabrics (as well as on hands if you use it to wash by hand). There's also no good reason to have sodium bicarbonate, carbonate, AND borax ALL in there.
ReplyDelete