Washing powder made from soap and soda ash
In the context of the economic crisis, families with little income are faced with the need to cut costs. What to save on? It’s good if you manage to save on luxury items, but didn’t buy jewelry - that’s savings for you. But what to do if you have to save even on essential items? This is where ingenuity comes to the rescue. Experienced housewives suggest saving on washing powder by making a homemade product from soap and soda ash. Whether it's real or not, let's see.
Simple composition
The general idea of saving is very simple. It is necessary to make an effective replacement for expensive powder from ingredients that would be very inexpensive. The key phrase is “effective replacement”; the homemade washing powder needs to be no worse than the powder that had to be abandoned, otherwise this saving option will simply lose its meaning. The most insistent on the Internet is a fairly simple recipe for washing powder, the only ingredients of which are soap and soda ash. We take:
- 100 g baby soap;
- 100 g soda ash;
- about 1 l. hot boiled water.
To prepare the powder, it is better not to use laundry soap instead of baby soap, since in this case the composition will be more aggressive and will have an unpleasant odor.
When preparing for the procedure of preparing powder from soda ash and soap, open the windows in the room, isolate the room in which you will prepare the powder from the rest of the rooms in the house by closing the door. Take an unnecessary pan in which you no longer plan to cook food, a spoon and a grater.A regular spoon and grater will do; after washing, they can then be used for cooking. Let's do the following.
- We select the finest mesh cloth on a grater and use it to grind a piece of baby soap.
- Pour all the soap crumbs into a saucepan and place it over medium heat.
- Immediately pour the soap with a liter of hot water and begin stirring the mixture intensively.
- Without bringing the mixture to a boil, completely dissolve the soap. At the same time, make sure that no grains remain.
- Once the soap has dissolved, pour in another 0.5 liters of hot water.
- After about 10 minutes of intensive stirring, pour 100 g of soda ash into the soap solution. Don't stop stirring the mixture.
- As soon as the baking soda is completely dissolved in the soap solution, the recipe can be considered successfully implemented.
The most important thing is the final touch. The mixture should not be cooled sharply, but it should not be left on the fire either. To obtain a homogeneous laundry gel, it is necessary to cool the mixture gradually at room temperature. As a result, we will not get a powder, but an erasing gel with the properties of a good washing powder. True, it will be less effective, so the recipe needs to be modernized. How? Let's talk about this in the next paragraph.
Improved composition
A recipe for baking soda and soap powder can be significantly improved by adding borax to it. Our ancestors have known about the amazing properties of borax for a long time. Our grandparents knew firsthand about the disinfecting properties of borax and its ability to deal with even very stubborn dirt. The recipe must be followed strictly, otherwise nothing good will be prepared. To prepare a household washing gel based on borax soap and soda ash, you need:
- 100 g of baby soap (do not use laundry soap);
- 100 g of soda ash (baking soda is worse);
- 100 g borax;
- 3 drops of essential oil (whichever you like best).
We do everything the same as when preparing a simple household washing gel until the stage of dissolving the soda ash.
The washing gel will be of better quality and more uniform if you first add borax to a hot soapy solution, and then, after it has dissolved, soda ash.
After both borax and soda have dissolved, you can add 3 drops of essential oil into the solution and remove it from the heat. While the gel has not completely cooled down, pour it into jars and cool completely at room temperature. The erasing gel is ready.
One more question remains: where to get borax? But this is not a problem at all. Borax or sodium tetraborate can be purchased at a pharmacy, although in this case the purchase will cost a pretty penny. It is best to order borax online in special stores. Consider for yourself, good quality technical borax can be ordered on the Internet for $1.20 per 1 kg, while in a pharmacy you will pay almost $1 for a 50 gram jar. As they say, feel the difference!
Recommendations for use
Despite all the assurances and reviews of housewives who often use washing gels prepared according to the above recipes, such products should not be used when washing in an automatic washing machine. You can use such a gel almost without restrictions when washing by hand, even when washing in a semi-automatic washing machine, but not in an automatic washing machine. Why is that?
The main reason is that the basis of this product is a soap solution.The soap solution, of course, most likely will not cause irreparable damage to the washing machine, but it will clog the hoses and pipes, which can ultimately lead to breakdown or, worse, flooding.
By the way, the same problem can arise when you use any eco-friendly washing powder soap based. Our experts warn against using any soap powders, especially homemade ones, in such washing machines. Conclusion: if you have prepared your own washing powder based on soap and soda ash, wash things with it manually or in a semi-automatic machine, otherwise the savings will turn into expenses for repairing the automatic washing machine.
In conclusion, we note that washing powder from the above ingredients is easy and cheap to prepare, and the components themselves are easy to obtain. However, you should not get carried away with homemade powder; it is still not a “panacea” for all stains, and besides, it cannot wash delicate fabrics. Be prudent - savings are good in moderation!
Interesting:
2 reader comments
Good article. And the recipe is good.
But if you don’t have time, then you can buy a ready-made version of soap and soda powder - Chistown.
Why bother cooking when it is not recommended to wash it in a machine, but you can just use soap by hand. It turns out great, but not everything can be washed by hand.By the way, our water may be very hard, but it is made up of soap and calcium. soda does not wash things off.