I’ve been dabbling in making my own laundry detergent for about a year now, but I think I’ve finally hit on the right ‘recipe’ for me. I’ve previously made both the powdered and liquid version using Fels Naptha soap, and was generally pleased with the results. Truth be told, the liquid version was really quite messy to make and to have sitting around, so I decided to stick with the powdered version.
I had been reading about making detergent with Zote soap. It seemed to be the Holy Grail of soaps; I could not find it anywhere. But I happened to stop in at Big Lots one day just to look around, and THERE IT WAS! The huge pink bars of Zote were just 90 cents. The bars weigh over 14 oz. and smell heavenly (a very clean, citrusy, sweet scent). Plus I love the pink color – so happy!
Since the Zote Bar is so huge, I was having a hard time converting it to the Fels Naptha recipe. I happened upon the 2:1:1 formula of Zote: Borax: Super Washing Soda. I tried this and voila, perfection (in my book)! Here goes: grate a bar of Zote soap (I use a cheese grater dedicated to soap-grating). The grated Zote is equal to about 6 cups, so using the 2:1:1 formula, add 3 cups of Borax (I use 20 Mule Team), and 3 cups of Super Washing Soda (I use Arm & Hammer). Mix it all together in a large container, and store covered. Simple.
I use anywhere between 2 Tablespoons and 1/4 cup per load, depending on how dirty the laundry is. It will get your laundry super-duper clean! Plus, I absolutely love the scent of this; it’s addicting. I air-dry all my laundry, which adds to the clean experience.
Update: I made a YouTube video on how to make this detergent. You can view it here: How To Make Homemade Laundry Detergent With Zote Soap
Happy Washing! ~ Marilyn
I'm Marilyn, and I'm obsessed with vintage clothing, thrift stores, clotheslines, and Chanel. Welcome to my down-to-earth world!
Thanks so much for all the tips. I made my first batch of laundry soap this past weekend and I have already falling in love with it and plan to keep making it!!!
That’s fabulous, AmandaLouise! Once you start making and using this stuff you can’t quit. It’s rather addicting!
~Marilyn
I am going to try this do you have to melt the soap or leave it in shreds.???
Hi Barb, no you do not have to melt the soap. Just leave it shredded and mix it with the borax and washing soda. It all dissolves quite easily in the washing machine!
~Marilyn
Love ZOTE! Was looking online to see if others love it, too and your post came up.
I do mine a little differently, and here is my 2 cents on the process:
1)I’ve made the Fels Naptha liquid AND powder for years. We are on our second HE front-loader, and I have been reading that my use of the liquid Fels recipe may be contributing to the odor!
2) I switched to making the POWDERED version with Kirk’s Castille (recipe I always use, no matter soap, is 1 cup grated soap to 1 cup Borax to 1 cup homemade washing soda). It’s soap free. I then add about 10 sprigs-worth of fresh lavender buds. Heavenly!
3)Our WalMart carries Zote for 90 cents/bar. I decided to try it and LOVE it. It iS soap and contains animal fat (tallow) unlike my Kirk’s castille recipe, but I like the way it looks. Add fresh lavender buds to the citrusy-scent (I have an aversion to citronella candles, so like to think of Zote as citrus-y rather than citronella, LOL) and it’s WONDERFUL!
4) I tried nuking (microwaving) the Zote last time and it produced a rather horrid, cooked animal fat smell. And it took like 7 minutes, and most of the soap was still pink and contained lots of moisture. The cooked animal-fat smell was rather off-putting, so I won’t nuke it anymore. No need, really. Simply unwrap your bar and leave it out. If your room is humid, you could stick the bar on a pie plate in a 200 oven for a few hours (no babysitting) or in your food dehydrator. Since it’s raining here today and our windows are open (beautiful fall day….perfect for tea and playing in the ktichen!), I’m going to try putting a cut-up bar of Zote in the dehydrator on HIGHEST setting first. Will report how it works!
5)Using a heavy-duty food processor beats hand-grating, in my opinion. I would never spend 15 minutes grating LOL–you are one determined gal! To secret is to mix about 1/3 batch at a time, so the borax and washing soda mix up readily with the cut-up soap.
6)Add 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax to food processor. Then add 1 bar cut-up Zote (like, 6-8 chunks). Pulse, then blend til fine. This takes about 1 minute max! Then I add 3-4 sprigs’ worth of fresh lavender buds (smells incredible). You could use essential lavender oil out of season, or use dried lavender. Please stay away from “lavender fragrance oils” as they contain chemcials and can be harmful to use and our environment. I also avoid using any “scent crystals” as some do, for personal reasons, because we are so sensitive to chemical scents and fragrances in our home.
7)Repeat food processor process 3 more times and then store in a ildded container. I keep the large batch in an old plastic ice cream container, but keep the “ready-to-use” batch in a lidded quart wide-mouth Ball jar with the white plastic lid and 1/8 cup scoop inside.
8) Use 1/8 (I scoop) to 1/4 (2 scoops) cup per load. For boys’ clothes, I use 1/4 cup!
9)I add 1 scoop (1/8 cup) store-brand oxyclean (it contains sodium percarbonate, which is powdered hydrogen peroxide, plus sodium carbonate, which is washing soda) for extra brightening instead of using chlorine bleach. This is safe for whites and colors, but do a colorfastness test if in doubt :-). You can also use liquid hydrogen peroxide in your bleach dispenser (1 cup per load), but only for whites usually, and the powdered store-brand of oxiclean is way more economical!
10) Use vinegar in your fabric softener dispenser.
TIPS:
1)Even though we have an HE washer, after adding powder to dispenser, I rinse it down with 1-2 cups of warm to hot water from the laundry room sink. I havent’ tested if our washer would do it alone, but I want to make sure nothing gets clogged, and this step is so easy, and gratifying to see the soap wash away. LOL. The pink and white mixing is kind of pretty, too!
2)To make homemade washing soda, which is much cheaper than buying Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, simply dump 2 cheap boxes (we buy ours from Aldi) of baking soda on a cookie sheet. Turn your oven on to 400, set it for an hour, put in sheet of baking soda, and walk away. It takes 45 minutes to convert baking soda to washing soda. Remove from oven; allow to cool, and store in a tight-fitting jar. Great to remove baked-on food on dishes (do not use on aluminum) and clean around the house–and of course, for this detergent! You can test conversion (though you won’t need to) by wetting the tip of your finger and placing a tiny amount of washing soda (half the size of a grain of rice) on your finger. Taste! It will taste bitter and “sizzly” on your tongue, not salty like baking soda. Spit out and rinse. I do 1 hour because it’s easy. No preheating, no waiting, put it in the oven, let it come to temp, let it do its thing for 45 minutes, timer rings, take it out, cool it, store it, DONE! Easy. Way cheaper than storebought, too!
I post about my Zote soap on my blog above too, among other things, if anyone cares to read.
Glad to find other “fans” of Zote soap! Enjoy creating!
Missy
Greener Goods
Whoops! When making my batch 1/3 at a time, I made a mistake above:
1 DO NOT add the whole bar of Zote at once. Instead, add 1 cup washing soda, 1 cup borax, then eyeball a THIRD of your cut-up or nuked Zote and add that. It will combine easily with the dry ingredients.
I do this in 3 batches so it mixes well; then once done I stir it all up with a spoon in the large plastic ice-cream container bucket (also handy for storing weekly batches of our dogs’ food. Birthday party ice-cream buckets come in handy haha). I am obsessed with Ball Jars, so I store my oxiclean (store brand) and pretty pink ready-to-use Zote powder in a quart Ball Jar with scoop by the washer.
Time to make more soap today! Enjoy! 🙂
Thank you for all your great hints, Missy! I am amazed at the variety of ways people make their homemade detergent – there is some pretty inventive stuff going on out there!
As for me, I am sticking to my original method of making this. Yes, it does involve 15 minutes of grating with a hand grater, but it is simple to make and the result is effective. I really love this stuff! 🙂
~Marilyn
I love to make homemade laundry soap and have tried several recipes for liquid and dry laundry soap. We have hard water. I use castile soap, borax, washing soda, and have also added baking soda and hydrogen peroxide for whites. I rinse with 1 cup vinegar. I dissolve the powder detergent in hot water before adding to water and then add clothes. However, my whites are grey, white socks have dirt marks, and at times, my laundry smells. Will try this recipe. Does castile (pure vegetable soap) not clean as well as animal fat soaps and chemical laden Fels Naptha? Help, I really want to make my own soap. Your suggestions are appreciated.
Hi Diane,
Yes, try this recipe using Zote soap. Zote is made with coconut oil, tallow, and optical brighteners and I find that it dissolves more easily and cleans better than castile soap or Fels Naptha. Plus it has a fabulous citronella scent. I don’t have hard water, so please let me know your experiences with using this recipe. Good luck!
~Marilyn
Diane V,–
We have VERY hard water. Even with a softener, I was getting dingy whites and an HE front-loader odor (even after cleanings with bleach, leaving door open, wiping it out, etc.). I found my use of LIQUID homemade soap like Kirks’ and Fels may be contributing to the odor (I don’t know why).
Anyway, since I changed to the Kirks’ POWDERED, I noticed no odor. I tried Zote out of curiosity. I don’t mind the idea now of using animal-fat-true-soap anymore.
My laundry smells great. I do NOT microwave it and mix it up in a few minutes in the food processor.
And, I just unwrapped a fresh bar and did it with no problem on a rainy day. Doing the detergent in batches (1/3 borax, 1/3 of a cut-up (not shredded) bar of soap (say, 7-8 pieces), 1/3 washing soda) at a time and I had no trouble. The dry ingredients sucked up any moisture in the bar, and the result was a superfine powder (I used the slicing, not shredding, disc on my Goodwill-purchased General Electric heavy-duty food processor). Anyway, that’s my 2 cents–hope it helps! The powdered Zote is so simple to make this way that I did a DOUBLE batch. It was a short, fun project for a rainy afternoon 🙂
If you’re having trouble finding ZOTE soap a local Mexican store should carry i see they have them by the truck loads
Missy – thanks for your comments on using Zote in hard water. Good to know! 🙂
Elizabeth – YES! Since Zote is a Mexican product, that is an excellent tip! 🙂
Hard water chemicals WILL turn your whites grey. The reason for this is, the hard water minerals interfere with soaps cleaning ability. Borax and Washing Soda attract the hard water mineras (Calcium Magnesium et al) while letting your soap attack the dirt/soil in your clothes.
Borax and Washing Soda are what’s called laundry boosters, they raise the PH in your water and softens your water through the wash process.
Dollar Tree stores carries the brand “La’s Totally Awesome” Oxygen base cleaner which is (Sodium Per Carbonate) know as Powdered Hydrogen peroxide same as Oxiclean , 16oz for $1.00!
F.Y.I.
MY Great Grandmother, Mary was born 1910, and would ONLY USE these laundry products listed below. Even when WWII brought about a shortage of
animal fat (Beef Tallow and Lard pig fat) because it was being used to make nitroglycerin bombs, she refused to try the “Chemical detergent” Tide. She instead followed the homemade recipes of 1 Fels Naptha-1 cup Borax-1 cup Super washing soda, and she used the brown bottles of liquid hydrogen peroxide for bleaching.
Our family has been using homemade laundry soap ALL our lives. We use 1 bar of Fels (in memory of our grand mother Mary’s great insightful gift to the family) and 1 bar Zote, 32 ozs each of Borax and Super Washing Soda, and 32 ozs of La’s Totally Awesome oxygen base cleaner. Some in our family have recently started to include 20ozs of Purex Scent Crystals for an added scent. This recipe yields 271 Tablespoons ,2Tbsps are recommended for a single it will last for months.
Super Washing Soda first made in 1874=139 yrs old as of 2013
Fels Naptha was first made in 1894= 119 yrs old
20 Mule Team Borax first made in 1891=122 yrs
Something this old Still being made, has to be good.
Tide is what’s called a petro-chemical synthetic detergent born in 1946
Hard water chemicals WILL turn your whites grey. The reason for this is, the hard water minerals interfere with soaps cleaning ability. Borax and Washing Soda attract the hard water minerals (Calcium Magnesium et al) while letting your soap attack the dirt/soil in your clothes.
Borax and Washing Soda are what’s called laundry boosters, they raise the PH in your water and softens your water through the wash process.
Dollar Tree stores carries the brand “La’s Totally Awesome” Oxygen base cleaner which is (Sodium Per Carbonate) know as Powdered Hydrogen peroxide same as Oxiclean , 16oz for $1.00!
F.Y.I.
MY Great Grandmother, Mary was born 1910, and would ONLY USE these laundry products listed below. Even when WWII brought about a shortage of
animal fat (Beef Tallow and Lard pig fat) because it was being used to make nitroglycerin bombs, she refused to try the “Chemical detergent” Tide. She instead followed the homemade recipes of 1 Fels Naptha-1 cup Borax-1 cup Super washing soda, and she used the brown bottles of liquid hydrogen peroxide for bleaching.
Our family has been using homemade laundry soap ALL our lives. We use 1 bar of Fels (in memory of our grand mother Mary’s great insightful gift to the family) and 1 bar Zote, 32 ozs each of Borax and Super Washing Soda, and 32 ozs of La’s Totally Awesome oxygen base cleaner. Some in our family have recently started to include 20ozs of Purex Scent Crystals for an added scent. This recipe yields 271 Tablespoons ,2Tbsps are recommended for a single load it will last for months.
Super Washing Soda first made in 1874=139 yrs old as of 2013
Fels Naptha was first made in 1894= 119 yrs old
20 Mule Team Borax first made in 1891=122 yrs
Something this old Still being made, has to be good.
Tide is what’s called a petro-chemical synthetic detergent born in 1946
Hi Bette, thanks for all your great information! You have an amazing family history of homemade laundry soap makers. 🙂
~Marilyn
i can’t figure out how you get 6 cups of grated soap out of a 14 oz bar of zote! i make this all the time, and my bar of zote grates down to about 2.5 cups.
that being said, i wanted to add my tips… to the standard 2:1:1 recipe, i also add about a half cup of oxiclean and a half cup of baking soda. we live in texas, and it’s humid here, and i’ve found that the baking soda really helps to eliminate odors. it works for me!
i’m also a fan of zote. i despise the smell of fels naptha, it’s just gross to me. and for people who are new to using homemade laundry soap, resist the urge to use more than 1/8 cup for a standard load. particularly towels. me and my mom had such a hard time getting used to using so little, and for a long time, we were adding too much. when i finally made myself use less, my towels came out softer than they’d been since they were new!
I’ve been using this soap recipe in my HE washer and never had any problems – at least I didn’t think I had any problems. I gave some to my sister to try and she complained that the pink zote never dissolved and stuck to her clothing. Since I had never had that issue, I took a tablespoon of the laundry soap and poured some boiling water over it and found that the pink zote never did dissolve – even after 1 hour. Now my concern is whether it will clog my washing machine if it never dissolves and forms a clunk. I read in this blog that the soap dissolves very quickly – I don’t see that. Am I missing something or do I have to grate the zote super fine?
Hi Christie – Mine turns out to be approximately 6 cups because my hand-shredded Zote chunks are quite large and it’s just the sheer volume of it! It’s not an exact science obviously. Thanks for your Texas laundry tips. I too have a problem with wanting to always add more of this detergent. Maybe because it doesn’t suds and psychologically I think it should. I will work on resisting adding more than 1/8th cup! 🙂
Hi ksf – I have never had a problem with Zote dissolving, although I live in an area where the water is soft so maybe that is why. I think grating the Zote super fine would be a good idea if you have problems with it dissolving. If you read through the comments on this post, there are some that have posted what they do in a hard water area. Also there are comments on how to microwave the Zote to get it to a fine powder, although I have not tried it myself.
~Marilyn
Thanks for your quick reply. I do have soft water and have high humidity. I will try using my food processor to finely grate my soap and let you know. – Karen
I enjoy all the comments that was made about the allll natural soap.
Hi Alice,
Yes, I agree! There are some fantastic tips and helpful hints in the comments. All of you ROCK! 😀
~Marilyn
I live at the foot of the Smoky Mountains – a very hard water area. I use one bar of white Zote (pink also works), 3 cups each of washing soda and borax. 1/4 cup of detergent plus 1/2 cup of bleach makes my whites sparkle. 1/4 cup keeps my bright colors bright. The extra washing soda and borax softens up the water so the soap can work its magic.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with homemade detergent, Renee!
~Marilyn
I took a small amount of my home made laundry soap and put it in a jar of cold water. I gave it a good shake,a very good one, and the Zote didn’t dissolve. I’m going to start dissolving my soap in hot water before I add it to the wash. It’s better no to start any problems. And yes, I did grind it up in the blender.
Hi Joanna,
That is a very good point about Zote in cold water. When I use this, it’s usually for warm or hot water washing and I have no trouble with it dissolving. When washing in cold water it is best if you add it with some hot water beforehand to dissolve it, like you did.
~Marilyn
Lots of differing ways to make laundry soap !! I tried the liquid, went to powder, and will never buy Tide again. I do it a bit differently. I chop the Fels, or the Zote, put it in a Very Old food processor with a couple tablespoons of baking soda, and this way it grates superfine, with no clumps of warm sticky soap. I use two of the bar soap, one box washing soda, one box borax, one box baking soda and an oxiclean powder that I found for $1 at the dollar store. I also will add powdered color safe bleach if I have it, also $1. It makes about a 4 gallon bucket full and I only make it every 2-3 months. Just another version for anyone interested. I also have maybe 4 half gallon mason jars of soap pre-grated, just in case the power goes out. And a tub and washboard, but that’s just me LOL. We are hurricaine prone here, and after seeing some bad ones around the world, I just want to be able to care for my children in the event of an emergency.
Hi Debby,
Wow, you are a very industrious sort! Thank you for your laundry soap making experiences. I too like the powdered version MUCH better than the liquid. I keep my basic powdered Zote detergent on hand, and add extra ingredients on an as-needed basis for each individual load. Most of the time I find that the basic recipe works just fine. Sometimes I like a bit of scent and I add a few Purex Crystals. But you just have to use a tiny bit – it’s very powerful!
~Marilyn
I’ve been following this basic recipe for awhile. I was tired of making small batches and wanted to mix up a lot at once. Using the same ratio I did 2 boxes borax, 3 boxes washing soda, and 6 bars zote. I blended the zote in the food processor with the borax then dumped everything in a five gallon bucket to mix up well. Made about 60 cups of dry detergent which I split up into gallon storage bags in 10 cup increments. I use 1-2T per load so each bag is about 120 loads! It cost $26 for all the ingredients and took about 15 minutes to make. Not bad for 700+ loads of laundry!
Sarah, that is AMAZING! What a great way to get it all done in one fell swoop. I like to do mine in small batches because I really enjoy doing it. Hand grating the soap is a good stress reliever too! I came up with the same calculations you did – it works out to about 4 cents per load. And I think it cleans much better than Tide or any of the expensive detergents.
~Marilyn
I am very impressed with zote soap as a dish soap.I will never use anything else for my dishes. I also decided to use it as a laundry soap. once again I was impressed. I have hard water and use a water softner,but I still prefer washing in cold water. I desolved the zote and added just it with nothing else to my laundry. My laundry came out clean, soft and smelling fresh. I do however use viniger in the rinse. I would go back to washing on a washboard if my sister and my 2 kids would let me have my way. Modern washing machines cannot compete with the washboards.
Been using this recipe for almost a year now! Switched from Fels Naptha to Zote. My girls love the pink and like to help me with the recipe. I love how our laundry feels, everything comes out soft without using fabric softener. We added Purex crystals to the loads sometimes as well as OxyClean. Thanks so much for sharing!
Vicki, I’ve also tried Zote as a dish soap. In fact, I once used this laundry detergent recipe in my dishwasher when I ran out of dishwasher soap! It actually worked and got the dishes really clean. I would only use it in a pinch though. I have never tried a washboard, that sounds fascinating!
Texas, I too, love Zote waaaay better than Fels Naptha. Fels just doesn’t seem to dissolve as well. I am a devoted Zote convert. Once in a while I also add Purex crystals to a load when I want a bit of scent. This laundry recipe cleans well but leaves little scent.
~Marilyn 🙂
I cut my zote lengthways and use the grater on my food processer and pour some of the baking powder in and it doesn’t clump.
When do you at the detergent to the washer… before or after putting clothes in? Should I dissolve it in warm water first?
Deborah, that’s a neat trick for those of you who use a food processor!
Danielle, I have a top-loader washing machine and I add it first, when the water is pouring in and before I add the clothes. A friend of mine uses an HE/front-loader machine, and she puts the clothes in first and then adds the detergent on top of the clothes. She says it works really well. I will have to take her word for it as I don’t have a fancy-schmancy washer. 😀
Marilyn
For those struggling with gray looking whites using this soap – I just recently read a tip that suggested soaking your whites in hot water for a while before running the regular cycle. I was adding extra washing soda but really like the idea of hydrogen peroxide in my whites. The hot water and soak time seem to do the trick for me. Not perfectly white but much better!!
I made up a batch of the laundry detergent, using your “recipe”. I, also, used the large side of my grater. Since I wash mostly with cold water, I tried to dissolve my detergent in a cup of hot water prior to pouring it into the washer. I stirred for approximately 10 min. and the Zote would not dissolve. I had to microwave the mixture for about 1 min., stirring at 20 second intervals before the Zote turned into a jelly-like substance. Does this sound like I should make the liquid washing detergent instead of trying the dry? Thanks for your advice because I really want to make my own washing powder!!
Hi Sheryl,
It does sound like you need to try making the liquid version if you’re mostly washing in cold water. I use this powdered version when I wash in warm or hot water, which I usually wash in. For cold water washing I usually use baby shampoo or Woolite. Good luck!
~Marilyn
Hi, I just found this site and was reading many of the comments. I have been using dry homemade laundry soap for about a year and a half now. My recipe is large and uses borax, washing soda, baking soda, oxi-clean, and Fels Naptha soap. I use 1 cp vinegar in the rinse for fabric softener. After the first batch I switched to Zote soap, unfortunately after 1 1/2 years my cotton whites and some synthetics are noticeably dingy. I was very pleased with the cleaning power of the homemade laundry soap up until that point. I believe my recipe has everything everyone is suggesting to combat dingy whites, and have seen others on other sites say the same about castile soap. I’m afraid I’ll have to go back to laundry detergent as my husband’s shirts absolutely have to be white, not to mention I can’t stand it either. Open to any suggestions
I am so Excited!!! I use a homemade laundry soap that is the consitancy of mayo. I wash in mostly cold water but I dont like to cook esp laundry soap 🙂 . So the soap I make you gel your fels naptha over night then finish the next day. My hubby complains about the smell- and I just worry about money. The fix I believe is ZOTE!!! THANK YOU . I am not very good on the computer but if you look on pinterest under five minute laundry soap you should be able to find the recipe…… for those like me who like the cold water. I will be making your powder though for when I clean my mans work clothes cuz those always need HOT water!!! Thanks so much for making my day!!!!
You are very welcome, Kimmie! I’m sure you will really like this recipe for washing in warm or hot water. Like you, I use a liquid detergent or baby shampoo for washing in cold water. Good luck!
~Marilyn
Hi Sherry, it does sound like you may need to switch to detergent for the white shirts at least. I haven’t run into this particular problem but I don’t need anything to be white white. Good luck!
~Marilyn
Thanks Marilyn, I confess I had not considered just using the detergent on just those items. That should still save a good bit of money.
Thanks for your great blog. I cut up the ZOTE into small pieces and it mostly dissolved except for some gooey bits on top of the water. I added a cup of Borax, a cup of washing soda and 4 SUN laundry pellets. I used an old washing soap container. It would help if I had a funnel but used a flexible, plastic chopping board instead. I like the bucket idea better so I’m waiting for the COSTCO kitty litter to get used up and I’ll use that bucket. It has a very wide, rectangular top. I think I’ll try your dry version next time. Do you guys have any more fabulous ideas? THANKS.
I have been using soap berries for over 3 years now. I add 5 to 7 berries (seeded and dried), a bit of soda (baking til now – Iwould like to mske washing doda today) and that is it. I add hydrogen peroxide to whites and shirts worn on hot summer days. I also use white vinegar in the rinse. For a light, citrusy scent, I keep a glass gallon jar full of citrus peels and white vinegar during citrus season. I dislike industrieal chemicals in my laundry – even the ones I grate. There are just too many unneeded ingredients like fats, greases and “optical brighteners”. Also’ d poo sp berries litterally grow on trees! 🙂 This is where I order mine. One kilo will last us 4-6 months. I also soak 5-7 berries in a quart of water to keep by my kitchen sink. I use it with a bit of baking soda (washing soda after today?) and a dash of cleaning vinegar (see previous mention with citrus peels) in a tub for a prerinse.
I have been using soap berries for over 3 years now. I add 5 to 7 berries (seeded and dried), a bit of soda (baking til now – Iwould like to make washing doda today) and that is it. I add hydrogen peroxide to whites and shirts worn on hot summer days. I also use white vinegar in the rinse. For a light, citrusy scent, I keep a glass gallon jar full of citrus peels and white vinegar during citrus season. I dislike industrieal chemicals in my laundry – even the ones I grate. There are just too many unneeded ingredients like fats, greases and “optical brighteners”. Also, berries litterally grow on trees! One kilo will last us 4-6 months. I also soak 5-7 berries in a quart of water to keep by my kitchen sink. I use it with a bit of baking soda (washing soda after today?) and a dash of cleaning vinegar (see previous mention with citrus peels) in a tub for a prerinse.
Oh yeah. We are a family of 7 and we use cloth diapers, cloth napkins and a lot of them! We still only go through a couple-few kilos of soap berries/nuts per year.