Homemade Laundry Detergent

[retire@40]

I use crumpled newspaper on windows and mirrors to give them a nice shine after washing them.

[calmloki]

Quote:

Originally Posted by retire@40 I use crumpled newspaper on windows and mirrors to give them a nice shine after washing them.

Ditto that - and the Wall Street Journal is the best paper for it: harder paper, fewer paper bits sloughing off on the glass.

Boric acid (eye wash powder found in the drug store) put into a plastic ketchup container and puffed at baseboards and into outlets is the thing for roaches, which on rare occasion have moved into our places with a new tenant (roaches think cardboard box corugations are little tenements).

[chinaco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChemEng I mentioned in another thread that one of the areas Im cheap in is laundry detergent. I make my own. Its amazing how much junk is in a box of detergent that does nothing for cleaning at all. After asking around, I found this recipe: 1/2 Cup Washing Soda (NOT baking soda.) 1/2 Cup Borax 1 Cup Fels Naptha Soap Grind it down using a cheese shredder and mix. Simple as that. Use 1 tablespoon for light loads. 2 tablespoons for heavier loads. (Tablespoon is the right size, its more potent and doesnt need cups of it to work.)

Interesting. I took a look and their are other recipes on the net that use regular bar soap like ivory. There are liquid recipes with the proportions of other ingredients.


How much was the cost and how much detergent did it yield?? Something like how many loads of laundry for a top loader?


Also, did it cause any problems for your clothing? Any odd stains or effects on the cloth?


The reason I ask... I wonder how this compares to something like Sam's Club 5 gallon bucket of powder Laundry detergent... Isn't it fairly cheap?

[ChemEng]

The difference is mainly in how much you have to use per load. Our detergents before was using about a cup to a cup and a half. This uses 1 or 2 tablespoons. Thats a huge difference.

What I did was buy a 8 or 10 pack of the Fel Naptha soap and then enough other ingredients to use it. That made about 3/4 of a 5 gallon container that we are still using. No problems with clothes at all.

As always, you can buy smaller quantities of the ingredients first to see if you like the mix before you jump to a bigger order.

[TromboneAl]

Does it do well when washing in cold water?

[ChemEng]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl Does it do well when washing in cold water?

We only wash in cold water and have had no problems.

[Martha]

When visiting my inlaws in Florida I learned that there is cold water and then their is COLD water. The cold water at my inlaws was about the same temp as our warm water for washing. I later read that the expectation for cold water washing is that the temp will be at least 65 degrees. Our water is so cold that it is painful to hold your hand under the faucet for any length of time.

Our new washer actually brings the cold water up to a higher temperature so I can finally wash in cold water.

[MikeD]

This article in yesterday's Washington Post says that cold water washing leaves dirt on your clothes. We are going to try warm water for a while to see if it makes any difference.

In the Laundry Room, Luxury That's Worth It - washingtonpost.com

Mike D.

[Moemg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martha When visiting my inlaws in Florida I learned that there is cold water and then their is COLD water. The cold water at my inlaws was about the same temp as our warm water for washing. .

When I first moved to Florida,I thought something was wrong with my plumbing because the water was so warm .

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Some of you guys are going to have the homeland security people knocking on your doors.

Here in Excramento, we get hot water out of BOTH faucets!

[Moemg]

Anybody have a homemade recipe for getting rid of fire ants ?

[KB]

I don't know where you live, but here is a document about Fire ants and some insecticides that they suggest. In California, they are a quarantined pest so the guidelines might be different where you live.

Red Imported Fire Ant Management Guidelines--UC IPM

[ChemEng]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg Anybody have a homemade recipe for getting rid of fire ants ?

Diesel fuel on the ant hill?

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Better still, put a bar of ivory soap in a couple of quarts of gas and after it dissolves, place the napalm-like gel in a generously applying metal sprayer. Then all you need is one of those long gas matches. That should resolve the fire ant problem.

Yep, being my neighbor is pretty interesting sometimes. I'll bet none of yours has ever made a napalm flamethrower

[Sandy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg Anybody have a homemade recipe for getting rid of fire ants ?

Pour lots of boiling water on the nest. Takes multiple efforts however.

Boric acid works but it leave a dead spot in the yard for quite some time (yea, extreme acid rain)

[Telly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg Anybody have a homemade recipe for getting rid of fire ants ?

Yeah, stab each of them through the heart with a very sharp straight pin

Well, years ago there was Orthene, don't think it is on the market anymore. The stuff stunk so bad that it had to be kept outside, the smell would go through any container. Used to put a teaspoonful on every mound, while holding breath.

Every "home" remedy I have heard of is a waste of time, or totally impractical if you have any land at all. Here in TX, if you were to treat mounds one by one that you saw, you would miss the up and coming mounds, or other stealth mounds. But the big mound-building here is usually only after enough rain to get the soil really wet, that they build the mound up to have a place to transfer the eggs to get up out of the soggy ground. Most of the year, we don't really see many built-up mounds. So a mound-by-mound approach doesn't work well.

I have had real good luck with Amdro. Have to keep it in the house, needs to be cool, as it is a bait. Apply it in the evening when the sun is off the area. Can spot-treat mounds, but better yet, can spread it very thinly (like 1 lb per acre) via a hand-cranked hand-held seed spreader on the lowest setting. I do it in strips that do not overlap. That is, a 15 foot wide or so strip, then a 15 foot strip of no spread, then another 15 foot wide strip of spread. The fire ants forage over a bigger distance than 15 feet, so they will find it. Amdro takes a while, it is not an immediate-death kind of poison. But it kills the multiple queens.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Telly .............. Amdro takes a while, it is not an immediate-death kind of poison. ..........

I had this problem when I was using Saccharin to kill rats in my barn...

[deserat]

CFB - so that's what you are up to in retirement and why I see the flames in the northeast from this pasttime from my house in Vacaville....too creative...too much time on your hands :-)

[Moemg]

Thanks CFB for the advice !

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Mmm, yeah the flamethrower also leaves a small bare spot on the lawn.

The guy that lives across the street also stopped parking in front of my house.