Dear Frugal Upstate,
I’m using you laundry detergent recipe but, my whites are getting dingyier and dingyier. I live in North Carolina and have 2 boys aged 7 and 9. They stain everything in the red clay here. I’ve tried bleach in with the detergent on the long soak cycle but, still dingy wash. What would you suggest?
Mary
Mary,
I’ve been using my homemade laundry detergent recipe for years and have never noticed that particular problem with my clothes~the homemade has always worked fine for me~so I don’t have a really good answer for you. First and foremost, if you are saving money but you aren’t happy with the quality you are getting then you should consider switching back to store bought laundry detergent. Just shop the sales and cut your coupons of course.
I think if I had some OxyClean at home I would experiment with throwing some of that in each load and see if it helped. I haven’t tested it myself so I can’t swear to the effectiveness of it in this particular situation, and of course you’d have to figure out the change in the cost per load with using the OxyClean to see if it continues to be cost effective compared to store bought.
Readers-help Mary out! Have any of you had this problem? What have you done to fix it?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=9538347c-c152-4707-bfc8-91a6dbf03932)
I used to make my own laundry detergent as well. Though, I found that:
– the clothes never seemed as clean. sometimes I had to rewash (which isn’t saving anyone money)
– they couldn’t sit in the washer for any amount of time before they started stinking.
– even when they were taken directly to the dryer, sometimes they would come out “stinky” – my family would yell “mom, I have stink shirt!” Which is telling me they weren’t fully clean before being dried.
Everyone has a different experience with it. I’m wondering if it has something to do with hardness/softness/composition of your particular water?
I went back to store bought detergent. With coupons, sales and grocery games, I pay less than when I was making my own homemade.
I like the idea of the more “natural” soap, but it just didn’t work for us. š
Good luck!
I did have this problem with liquid homemade laundry detergent, and I switched back to store-bought, for the time being. Perhaps it could be a difference in the water- hard or soft? I’m on well water with a water softener myself.
I know we have really hard water here, and it causes our whites to be dingy if I don’t combat it. Is there a way to test the water and see if it needs a softener?
I found this….
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080304172755AAL43h0
and this
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=gmail&rls=gm&q=Get%20clay%20out%20of%20clothes
I’m in Nebraska and my grandma used home made soap to get clay out – Fals Naptha (which I use on my son’s white game pants) or castile soap.
One thing you can do is find the old fashioned small blue bottles of blueing and whiten your whites and light colors the old fashioned way. I’ve found bluing (spelling???) at WalMart in the past, but you may have to look around to find it. You just put a little bit in the wash, and it makes the whites much brighter. We have quite soft water where we live, and I have a friend who still does that several times a year to whiten her whites and light colored clothing. But if we had hard water and couldn’t afford a decent water softener, I think my friend would probably use the bluing a lot more often.
I have a problem w/ hard water, and use cloth diapers, which I have had major troubles getting clean and white. One thing I read somewhere that helped is that bleach and detergent sort of counteract each other. I have found that if I start the washer with just detergent, then add a splash of bleach in the rinse cycle, it gets my whites much whiter. Of course, since they are diapers, I do another rinse, b/c bleach residue breaks out my kids’ bottoms. So that might not help you, if you have to do another rinse. But it might help someone. Also, Jenn is right. Oxyclean does wonders, but it also fades colored clothes over time, if you use a lot of it (I see that in play clothes and my husband’s work clothes, which get washed in Oxyclean often.)
I’ve got a great tip that I learned a couple of years ago. I’ve made my own detergent for a while and have run into the same problem. Fill the washer enough to cover the whites and to let them move around in the water. Then add a half of a cup to a cup (depending on load size) of peroxide to the water. Close the cover to swish it around a bit, then let it soak for a couple of hours. I’ve even let things soak overnight for super dingy stuff. You can usually get a bottle of peroxide for about $0.30 to %0.50 on sale and one bottle will do 4 to 5 loads so it’s very economical. It’s still necessary to spot treat though, as peroxide is not a stain fighter, just a whitener.
Good luck!
Peroxide or Bleach is likely more harsh than you need. Said dinginess is likely from hard water… white vinegar is an easy, inexpensive and eco-friendly way to beat it.
How about a soak in BIZ? This works for me sometimes!
http://bizstainfighter.com/
Same problem here. My whites and kids’ clothes were always looking dingy. I tried making the detergent more concentrated or adding OxyClean to each load, both without success. So I finally gave up on it and switched back to storebought.
I just use bleach in my whites still. Using oxygen cleaners can fade color clothes too in homemade detergent. Borax is suppose to be natural type of bleach too. I use less borax in my homemade detergent. More washing soda and more laundry bar. I also add a box of purex crystals laundry powder to my homemade laundry soap. I make the powder. You could also add liquid to homemade liquid. Which I use to do. You still use the same amounts of detergent as the homemade laundry detergent calls for. Almost all detergents are made for regular and HE washers. Using too much borax can cause graying of clothes and using too much homemade detergent can cause graying.
Thanks for sharing what you do!
Try adding extra washing soda to the formula, then add 1 to 1 1/2 cups of cheap white vinegar to the rinse. This will remove hard water scale.
I soak my daughter’s dingy whites in oxiclean or Clorox Ultimate Care bleach before running it through the regular wash. Usually does the trick every time!
I add baking soda to my laundry detergent recipe… helps remove odors. And of course washing in the right temperature is important. My whites are doing well!
I haven’t tried homemade laundry detergent yet as I have a nice collection of near free detergent from sales and coupons. š I too am in NC and red clay is well a pain! For me it is my second hardest stain – the first being marinara sauce on my kids clothes (and always the good ones at that!).
I don’t have any great solutions as I haven’t tried making my own yet, but I do know that before I got a front loader if I let the wash start and then stop it and let it soak overnight and then get going again it worked wonders on some of the stains! That said I can’t do that now with a front loader and so now I’m back to looking for a great way to get marinara stains out without rewashing.
I haven’t tried this but I read in another blog that if you soak clothes 24 hours in oxyclean it will take out any stain.
Peroxide is the same thing as Oxi-Clean, just in a different format. (Well, and Oxi-Clean now has that blue junk in it, too, whatever that is.)
Your reader probably has hard water. Hard water doesn’t allow soap to “dissolve” well (that’s not the correct scientific term); detergent was developed specifically for this reason. The soap doesn’t rinse well, so it’s not really that the dirt doesn’t get washed out, but that the soap doesn’t get fully rinsed out. Adding a water softener like baking soda might help, and/or using an extra rinse. But with really hard water, or hard water + tough dirt, it may be necessary to just go back to using detergent rather than soap. š (We’ve had hard water in two different homes, and used homemade detergent with differing results. I think that HOW hard the water is has made a difference.)
I would really like to try making my own laundry detergent with Castile soap. Has anyone tried this?
I have used both castile and fels naptha, I prefer the Fels Naptha. I too am having a hard time with dingy whites, I will try the vinegar rinse, because I have heard that this works. Good Luck..
You can soften water by adding Calgon water softner. I don’t have to do this, but I’ve read on other sites people having this work. You can also use less soap or no soap at all. I wash diapers once every 3-4 days. I use 2 T Borax and 1 T Washing Soda. Of course I have to pre-rinse before laundering because they’re diapers, but they come out clean and smelling great!
I do our regular laundry without a pre-rinse. I keep a bar of homemade lemon soap on hand for heavily soiled clothes. I just “wash my hands” with it under the running water to add a bit of soap to the load before the Borax and Washing Soda.
Great tips Mary-thanks for adding your input!
I’ve just started using my homemade laundry detergent and couldn’t find Fels-Nptha anywhere in town so I used Colgate Octagon. So far it’s working great on getting my clothes clean and fresh but I am noticing the whites and colors aren’t as bright as they could be. I have no idea how hard my water is but I will try the suggestions above to see if they help any. I’ll try using less soap on my next batch and maybe upping my Borax amount; I’ve had excellent results in the past using 20 Mule Team Borax in my wash in the place of OxyClean. Thanks for the above tips; I’m going to book mark this site for future reference!
Tanya-I’m so glad you found us and are enjoying the blog! First off I want to say that Octagon is a great choice for the laundry soap recipe. I just use Fels Naptha because it’s what I have locally. What you really DON”T want to use is a body soap with lots of lotion etc in it-who knows if all the extra gook will mess up your fabric!
As for the whites & colors not being as bright-you are running up against one of the big differences between a commercial product and one you make your own. Commercial detergents (which aren’t soap by the way) have added “optical brighteners” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_brightener) that reflect light in a way to make the white seem whiter to us.
Back in “grandma”‘s day the housewife who really wanted her whites to look white actually added a thing called “bluing” to her wash to make the whites whiter. Yes-just the tiniest bit of blue makes the white pop. You might be able to locate bluing at an old fashioned type hardware store. . . or you can order bluing online.
I’ve been using my homemade detergent for about a week now and have noticed substantial fading to our clothes. Is there anything that can combat that?
Fading? Really? I’ve never heard anyone say that. Let’s hear a few more details. . . are you line drying the laundry? What type of soap are you using?
I noticed fading too when I used homemade. I’d love to hear more about this problem.
been using the homemade detergant for a couple months now however I dont like the smell it like a chemical smell, what would take this out and not just cover it up?
Hmmm. Mine doesn’t smell chemical–as a matter of fact I don’t think mine smells like anything once it’s dry. . . are you using Fels Naptha soap or another brand? There is a readers question I answered a while back on scenting your homemade laundry detergent: http://www.frugalupstate.com/frugal-living/readers-question-how-to-scent-homemade-laundry-detergent/
I’m having issues with my homemade derergent of borax, washing soda and shaved castille soap. All of our clothes are coming out really soft. It’s cleaning them well, but I wish I could do something about how it’s making my laundry feel. Switching to store bought is not an option for me. Any advice?
I’m not sure exactly what you mean Tiffany. Could you please explain a bit more? Softness is usually a characteristic that folks are looking for in their laundry–hence the “fabric softener” products out there–so I think I am not really getting what you are trying to tell me.
+
It’s making the clothes look very “worn in” and old. I just washed a new shirt, and it now looks like I’ve been washing it for a year. This didn’t happen with the first batch of detergent I made. I tripled my powdered recipe this time, and I can’t figure out what I did wrong.
The homemade soap lacks the phospates and UV brighteners commom to modern detergents. This contributes to the “dingy” look.
The homemade detergent is really a step back to preWWII laundry tech. It has benifits and detractions. We use it because of allergies.
I also have been experiencing fading with my homemade laundry soap. I use various recipes, either dry or liquid, with the same three ingredients: Borax, Washing Soda and a bar of Ivory soap. My kids wear uniforms and some of their polo shirts have been worn for several years (passed down as they grow out of them). As an example, one of my son’s new navy polo shirts looks like one of the old navy ones after only 3 months.
So glad I found this post. I have been using home made detergent for six months now. Started with the liquid, thought it was too much trouble to make and use, and have been loving the dry… But I am noticing ‘stinky batches’ more and more often. I use 1 bar of fels naphtha, 1 4lb box of borax, 1 4lb box of super washing soda, 1 large box of baking soda, and 3lb of oxyclean…. And I usually add about a cup of vinegar when I start the wash.
I am too stubborn to quit using it, and have been blowing off my husband’s complaints of the occasional ‘stinky shirt’, thinking it was because he wears them too many times before washing š But yesterday I had two stinky shirts, and I know that I rewashed this batch twice with lots of vinegar and peroxide.
Another issue I’ve noticed is that my clothes have a kind of waterproof barrier too them. My kitchen towels just spread spills around before absorbing them. And my white kitchen rags, and my kids’ white blankies are impervious to bleach. I try to soak them in bleach for a whole week, with no change. Tried hydrogen peroxide and oxyclean too. It’s almost like they have a waxy barrier. Although I can’t really say the same about my clothes (would not complain about a little stain resistance!).
I do laundry every day and very rarely let it sit in the washer more than an hour or two before drying (it’s my ‘thing’, I don’t feel together if there is dirty laundry in the house). We live in Orange County, ca… I don’t know about our water, it is definitely not well and may be a little hard, although I have no problem with soaps sudsing.
Wondering if the problem is:
– this second batch of dry detergent, I used the dye and fragrance free oxyclean
– the fels naphtha was not well distributed, more of it is in the container I am not currently using (I was in a hurry when I made it)
– I’ve started line drying, I am also too stubborn to call a repair man, I am convinced we will figure out how to fix it ourselves :). It’s been rainy the last couple days (so rare!), maybe the increased drying time made them stinky.
– I have three preschoolers, who are in various stages of potty training, and I get quite a few pairs of dirty underwear to deal with… I pre rinse in the toilet, and pre wash in the washer before washing with our other clothes, but maybe the ‘germs’ are still getting on the rest of our clothes?
Your post and the comments have made me think I should try adding a lot more borax (luckily I bought a second box when I finally found some, all the stores around here have been out of stock for months!), and a little more fels naphtha. Any additional suggestions? Thank you so much in advance, I don’t want to give up on this!!
I am considering making my second batch of DIY laundry soap. The first batch we used the basic recipe with the orange bar soap (not sure if it was Zote or Fels Naptha but it was orange). I used a fine grater so it looked like there was shredded cheese in the soap. Also added Oxy Clean, A&H Baking doda and a bottle of Purex Crystals (we used pink). The kids loved the smell of the laundry soap and their clothes. The whole laundry room smelled great!
The only problem was my white work shirts not coming out stain-free unless I went heavy on the spray and wash. I may use the store bought detergent on the whites or find something to prewash or soak then in first. Maybe adding bleach before the detergent and presoaking before washing. I think it;s the bleach not working with the DIY detergent. I used a bleach tablet once and the shirts came out yellow.
1 4lb box Borax
1 3lb 7oz box A & H Washing Soda
1 3lb Oxy Clean
2 bars Zote or Felz Naptha
1 4lb box Baking Soda
1 bottle Purex Crystals
There is nothing wrong with using something store bought for those special cases, like whites that really need to be white. I haven’t personally ever noticed any yellowing using the homemade–but if you see it I’m sure it’s there. It could be differences in our water.
Honey, I used homemade laundry detergent for years made from lye soap. No problems at all!
Moved to FL, ran out of lye soap so I bought Fels Naptha, and before the 5 gallons were used up the clothes were starting to get waterproofed and I don’t know why!
Waterproof towels…wash my long hair and water running down my neck, LOL!!! Oh, I’ve gotten so mad!
I bought some lye soap after that and slowly…very slowly, some of the waterproofing is coming out of the fabric.
I will never use Fels Naptha again!
Interesting–I haven’t had that happen with our towels. . . I wonder if it is a combination of the soap and the water–we have extremely hard water here. Glad you’ve been able to fix your issue though.