Homemade Laundry Soap

My friend Annie recently asked me for any homemade/natural/non-toxic/cheap/environmentally friendly cleaning products. To which I replied "Do you know any products like that in general? I'd like to buy them."

Ethical purchasing is one of my passions and hobbies, but my standards of "ethical" are so high, I don't usually meet them. It seems to be a game of finding the best option and feeling disappointed.

So anyway, Annie's request inspired me to go looking for a best option laundry soap. I found a recipe for making a homemade soap out of borax, washing soda and ivory soap, which I FINALLY tried tonight.

Using our (OLD) pots, I shredded up my ivory soap and melted it into a foggy soup. It smelled spicy. I added the powders and a variety of weird amounts of water, then stirred it up. It ended up in a 2 gallon bucket in my basement, where it is hibernating or something until I can use it tomorrow.

I'm pretty proud of myself for finally getting the motivation to do this. Tomorrow I'm hoping to make a game plan for installing a clothesline and ordering seeds for a vegetable garden...my first ever!! Then I'm on to conquering my sewing machine...it was a christmas present and it sits in it's box until I have time to learn how to use it.

I'm still undecided as to whether this is more environmentally friendly than regular soap. The ingredients are pretty caustic, even though they are "natural." However, I compared ingredients with some 7th Generation laundry soap and they seem similar. Plus, I think that this ended up costing 1/2 as much as regular soap, so if nothing else, I have more money to buy my organic fruit and shirts. I'll get back to you on a final verdict once I've actually washed something.