More on the laundry soap I posted last night and a terrific all purpose cleaner recipe.
Poop! I am out of the soap I use to make laundry soap. This means this morning I will make some coconut/lard soap so I can make the laundry soap recipe I posted last night. Anyone that makes it, I wanted to give you a tip. If you buy fels naptha or zote first grate it up and then if you can put in a food processor to really grind it up finer. Then mix with all the other ingredients. I put this in the washer first before my clothing. The soap has longer contact with the water and has a chance to break down and dissolve. The finer the soap particles the faster it will break down into the water. If you can't find those soaps in your laundry isle, just go ahead and use Ivory or Kirks Castille or whatever true soap you can find. Just don't use a "beauty bar" (i.e. Dove) as that is not soap but detergent based.
Here is the basic reasons the ingredients listed are in it. The soap of course to help clean the laundry. You will not see suds from this recipe in your wash but it is getting your clothing clean. You do not need a high sudsing soap to work. The low suds actually help it rinse easier. The borax helps freshen the laundry and also works as an emulsifier with any grease in your clothes or laundry. It boosts the cleaning power of the soap. The calcium carbonate (washing soda, not to be confused with baking soda) helps the soap work better by adjusting the pH of the water and it also helps with the soap rinsing out of the clothing a lot easier. The baking soda helps with odors and getting your clothes as fresh as can be. I mentioned I use vinegar sometimes in a downy ball to help clothing rinse out cleaner but you really don't need to do this unless you live in a hard water area. I get by much of the time by not using the vinegar but once in a while I do it just in case to help keep the working components on my washing machine from getting any sort of a soap scum build up.
Since I told you all my laundry soap recipe I thought I would share my all purpose cleaner recipe too. This is cheaper than buying pre mixed all purpose sprays. It cuts grease in the kitchen and cleans everything from windows to counter tops, etc. I use it on everything and it really works for pennies. It is better than a lot of expensive cleaners you find in the store. I have slowly phased out all the cluttery bottles of various cleansers from under my kitchen sink. I just make a gallon of this in an old gallon vinegar bottle and take a black sharpie marker and wrote the recipe on the bottle so it is there when I need to make more. It is cost effective and again, contains far less chemicals than all of those commercial cleaners.
All Purpose Spray Cleaner
2 pints of 50% rubbing alcohol, or 1 pint of 70% rubbing alcohol ( I can get these 2 pints for $1 at my local dollar store)
1 tablespoon dishwashing detergent
1/2 - 1 cup sudsy household ammonia (a big bottle at dollar store for $1 and enough to make many batches of this) The amount you use is up to you and how much grease fighting you need. (You can omit this if you want to be totally green. However, I find that adding about 1/4 cup to a gallon really helps and a container of ammonia lasts me for at least 5 years. While not 100% green, it is such a tiny amount I don't feel guilty using it. Plus I use a septic system and the ammonia doesn't go into any streams or waters. It just produces nitrogen in my own yard and greens it up)
1/2 cup white vinegar (I can get this on sale for $1 in the fall, when everyone is canning pickles. I pick up about 5 gallons to last me through the year for various cleaning and cooking tasks)
Mix in a gallon jug. Fill jug with warm water and shake. You can put this in a spray bottle and use as you would Windex. Great for cleaning windows, chrome and bath fixtures. I even use this to clean my wood cabinets with no ill effects.
I even use this in the bathroom as the rubbing alcohol and the ammonia are anti bacterial and the rubbing alcohol is also anti viral. It is super duper cheap to make and use. I clean greasy messes up in the kitchen and it works as good as 409.
I'm telling you, once you have all the initial basic ingredients to make laundry soap or all purpose cleaner you can make up many many batches of either and save a lot of money and no more toxic chemicals all over your house. Making this I have eliminated the need for a million bottles of cleaner under my kitchen sink :) A gallon ends up costing me about $1 and lasts forever. A hell of a lot cheaper than buying 409 and window cleaner. Also, ammonia breaks down as nitrogen in the soil which is what plants love! This is an earth friendly spray cleaner for your home, and even more so if you use something like 7th generation dish soap.
Breakdown of how this works. The rubbing alcohol not only helps cut grease but it helps it dry faster so the product does not streak when washing windows, chrome, etc. Nice side benefit is the fact that it helps sanitize things. The ammonia helps cut grease and clean dirt grime of course. The dish soap helps cut grease but also helps form an emulsion of the ingredients and helps break surface tension of water so it works better to break down dirt/grime/grease. The vinegar helps to cut grease as well as remove odors.
To clean wood furnishings...I really like using 3 parts olive oil (regular olive oil, not extra virgin) to 1 part vinegar (vinegar will not spoil like lemon juice) and then about a teaspoon of lemon essential oil. I fill up a spray bottle with this and it works great at cleaning all the wood surfaces in my home and the addition of lemon or orange essential oil makes it smell nice. Just be sure to shake it well each time you use it. You can get orange essential oil really cheap at soapmaking supply places like http://www.brambleberry.com and citrus essential oils helps it clean better.
Have fun making things and let me know if you use them and how you like them. It is a lot cheaper in the long run and a heck of a lot more green :)