Love Your Skin: DIY “Green” Laundry Soap

Love Your Skin: DIY “Green” Laundry Soap

Suffering from dry, itchy, sensitive skin all over your body? Maybe you’d like to see whether laundry soap is the culprit.

Here’s a hypoallergenic alternative to commercial laundry detergents that can be too harsh for you, your children, or folks in your family with eczema.

Most conventional laundry detergent is chemical-laden (even the supposedly “natural” options), with sulfates and fragrances which have been tied to cancer and respitory diseases.

This recipe for DIY Green Laundry Soap is safe and gentle on you, tough on stains, and always gives a fresh laundry touch and feel and scent.

Many people make their own laundry detergent as a way to save cash, but most busy nurses would rather save time than money. Still, this recipe is incredibly easy to concoct, at about half the cost of commercial laundry detergent, depending on where you buy ingredients and how much you use per load.

Recipe for DIY Green Laundry Soap:

Ingredients (available at a grocery, health food store, or online retailers):

(1 Bar) Glycerin Soap (cleansing agent)
(1 Cup) Washing Soda (cleanse and soften water)
(1/2 Cup) Baking Soda (remove stains and odors)
(1/2 Cup) Citric Acid (soften water and brighten color)
(1/4 Cup) Coarse Salt (protect colors and soften water)

Yield:  25 loads, based on 1 Tablespoon for a small load or 2 Tablespoons for a large load.

To make Laundry Soap:

Grate one bar of unscented glycerine soap with a cheese grater set to fine (same size as parmesan). Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Store in an appropriately-sized, airtight container.

Note: this detergent will clump unless you add a desiccant, such as a recycled silica packet or some rice in a mesh bag or nylon, to the container holding this mixture.

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