homemade laundry and dishwasher powder

 This post was first written and posted to my original blog, Which Name?, on September 26, 2008. Even the photo is old!

 

we are still working on reducing...our consumption, our clutter, our spending, and our use of environmentally unsafe products. one of the biggest ingredients in my cleaning bucket is baking soda. there are more uses than you can count for baking soda. there are entire books about it. yesterday, i whipped up a new batch of homemade laundry powder (mine is a 4:3 ratio of soda and borax, where half the soda is washing soda and half is baking soda). i put half of the batch in an empty (now recycled) animal cracker container for the laundry, and the other half in this adorable IKEA jar, for use as dishwasher powder. yes, i discovered the same homemade powder works great for both. while i was at it, i cleared a slow tub drain by dumping a cup of baking soda down, followed by a cup of vinegar. when that finished sizzling, i poured a kettle full of boiling water after it. drain clear. next...find a replacement for my less healthy shout and zout stain removers.

edited in 2010 to add:
All these recipes specifying Castille soap are new to me. The recipe I use calls for grated soap (and back when I began making it, they often called for Zote soap of Fels Naptha, both old school laundry soap bars), but I just skip it due to skin sensitivities. It seems to work just fine without soap. I think Castille soap is now being used because it is more earth friendly and people friendly, so if you want to use a soap, just grate a bar (or half) and add it in. In fact, you can use any real soap you like.