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Washing Clothes Off the Grid

[1]Laundry detergent is a prep item that I have not begun to stock up on.  I was planning on using some form of soap and baking soda mixture to wash clothing, but the below recipes look more appealing.  I came across  this recipe that was found on a preparedness forum that is mentioned below for those that are interested in knowing how to make laundry detergent to clean clothes.  Did you know that mixing your own laundry is cost effective, and you get more for your money.

The below recipes were found of the forums of  www.survivalistboards.com [2].

Laundry Detergent

I have used the below recipe for a little over two years now with good results.  It is cheap and easy to mix up and gets the dirt out.

Ingredients

  • 1 bar of soap – whatever kind your prefer
  • 1 box of washing soda – in the laundry detergent aisle of stores.  It comes in an Arm and Hammer box and will contain enough for 6 batches.
  • 1 box of Borax – optional, but really kicks the cleaning up a notch.
  • 5 gallon bucket with lid – or a container that can hold up to 15 liters.
  • 3 gallons of tap water

Put about 4 cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat up on high until it’s almost boiling.

While water is heating up, begin shaving strips off of bar soap into the water until most of the bar of soap is shaved off into the water.  Make sure the soap shavings have dissolved into the water.

Put three gallons of hot water, or 11 liters or so into the 5 gallon bucket.  Then mix in the hot soapy water from step one, stir is for a while, then add 1 cup of the washing soda.  Keep stirring it for another minute or two.  Add a half cup of borax if you are still using borax.  Stir for another couple of minutes, then allow it to sit overnight.

Once the mixture has settled overnight, it will look a pale shade of gelatinous mixture.  One measuring cup full of this mixture will be roughly what one would need to do a load of laundry.

3 gallons of this mixture will give you 48 loads of laundry detergent.  The author of this recipe broke the cost of this recipe down and came out to 3 cents/per gallon.  Not a bad deal, if you ask me.

Fabric Softener

  • 3 cups of vinegar
  • 2 cups hair conditioner
  • 6 cups water

Mix it all together and add to washing machine at the proper cycle.

Note – some people only use 1/4-1/2 cup of vinegar as their chosen fabric softener, but the above mentioned is another version.