Grating soap.

Today I NEED to make more washing powder. See the glass jar on the top shelf with the little red scoop, I last made washing powder way back around April, may be March, maybe May, but about then. For a few months, it was used for 3 peoples clothes, including mucky overalls, the rest of the time its been a household of two, two messy eaters - I always spill my food! And one general mess from a 6 year old, paint, muck and whatever else he finds, along with food. He even gets food in his hair!
So later today I will be grating a pack of soap bars I found when cleaning out a box of junk. I don't normally grate soap to use, I'm lazy and buy Grannys Soap Flakes but I keep forgetting to go to the iron mongers and the bars of soap are not going to get used. We don't like bars of soap, we have a coconut liquid wash that a little goes a long long way.
To the grated soap I will add half that amount of soda crystals and half of that again of borax. Shake before putting some in the drum.

 

Poor Lightning; last night was the local fireworks display. The rain was doubling back up to get underneath your chin, streams forming along nearly every street and mock ponds forming in all the usual places, yet the council went ahead. I can see most of these from my house. Not the same as being there, but still good to look at. I sat in a darkened room with my very 'don't touch me unless I want food' cat, who was petrified and sat 5 inches away from me. To him, that is as good as a cuddle you are going to get. Dreading this week of bangs. 

Homemade Washing Powder

Making your own Washing Powder:

You will need
Borax
Soda Crystals
Soap Flakes

The recipe I had was something like this; 6 cups of soap flakes, 3 cups of soda crystals, and 1.5 cups of borax.
What I do is slightly over half fill my glass jar with Soap Flakes, then half fill the remaining space with Soda Crystals and then half fill again the remaining space with Borax.

This works for me. I use roughly 1 tablespoon of this shaken powder for a big load or dirty washing, and roughly 1 teaspoon for small loads. I put it in the drum with the clothes.
There is no 'smell' with this.

To add scent, I use essential oils instead of Fabric Conditioner depending on what I am washing.
My 'go to' oils are Tea Tree, Lavender, Lemon, Cinnamon, Citronella and Patchouli. Citronella is a new one for the summer, to TRY and reduce the amount of Midgies that attack.