my new discovery about laundry

**mommynurse** · 09-04-2011, 09:03 PM

Originally Posted by onencgirl

I've used Dawn before with good results. I had a recipe that calls for 1/4 cup Dawn then fill rest of a quart jar up with water. Measure load as you normally would. I use this when I'm out of Charlie's Soap, which I swear by.

Was this with "ultra" Dawn or the regular?

**sinopa27** · 09-04-2011, 11:52 PM

thanks for the tip. I may try it. Isn't dawn kinda expensive? I guess if you get it on sale and with a coupon........

**2ndGenGranola** · 09-05-2011, 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by Debbie-cat

Thanks. I am going to try this. We have hard water too and some of the whites are getting dingy with homemade detergent. I don't want to have to start buying regular detergent.

Are you using bluing in the rinse?

Homemade detergents are often stronger than storebought which means they are going to wash the blue dye out of the white clothes faster. (Bright whites have blue dye even in food products like marshmallows or cake frosting). White clothes without blue dye look dingy. A few drops of bluing in every rinse keeps the clothes bright (already dingy clothes may need more but go easy because it can spot). Notice how that Dawn that does the best job is blue?

**ladykemma2** · 09-05-2011, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by ladykemma2

no, the chemistry is

"sodium salt of fatty acid molecule" plus "calcium carbonate (as hard water)" -> "calcium salt of fatty acid" plus hydrogen carbonate

so you end up with "calcified fatty acid soap scum yuck" all of your clothes.

quoting myself hydrogen carbonate should read sodium carbonate.
don't do stuff like this before I am fully awake....

**gueradia** · 09-05-2011, 10:23 PM

Our whites are very dingy. How much Dawn would I need to put in a front loader to brighten our whites?

**cab54** · 09-29-2011, 01:19 PM

Oh, yeah, I'll wash laundry with almost anything to keep from going to the store.....dish soap, all-purpose cleaner, grated bar soap, grated fels naptha, and even shampoo. As FLYlady says 'soap is soap'. In most cases, anyway. I wouldn't use Comet or toilet bowl cleaner or anything.

**MissSeetonFan** · 09-29-2011, 04:34 PM

Just a warning, for those who have never tried dish soap as laundry detergent: DO NOT USE THE SAME AMOUNT - USE LESS. It is far more concentrated.

One place we lived in, the upstairs neighbors were trying to get their kids to be a little more independent so they taught them how to do their own laundry. Only, the kids didn't realize there was a difference, ran out of laundry detergent or didn't care. They used the same amount of dish soap as laundry detergent (or more - they were shown once then left to do it unsupervised from then on) and the suds backed up into our apartment several times before we could figure out what was going on. They had a normal washing machine.

**kimmy4433** · 09-29-2011, 05:49 PM

HE= High effeciency Meaning it uses less water and IMO does not clean the clothes as well.

I have Mrs. Stewart's bluing that I add to my white loads.

I use HM laundry detergent Unless I can get Extra on sale with coupon for $0.50 a bottle.

For DS cloth diapers I use the homemade until I get build up AKA the stinkies and I "Strip" them with Dawn and washing soda.

While on vacation we ran out of laundry soap so I used shampoo and then dish soap. Soap is soap!!

**oheoh's momma** · 09-29-2011, 07:20 PM

I use dawn as a stain pretreater. It works really well with a toothbrush. laundry is expensive, I the biggest bottle of Tide with downy about every 6 weeks. I also use a big bottle fabric softer with vinegar every 6 weeks. (The biggest name brand cheapest price , it's blue final touch think is it) The big box of purex dry bleach a$1.97 every month. So laundry is my biggest household expense. Never washed clothes in dish liqiud worried about soap scum.

**ladykemma2** · 09-29-2011, 07:57 PM

update - the month is over and i used one bottle of ajax lemon 64 ounce $2.96 for the whole month.

success!

**sunshine** · 09-29-2011, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by oheoh's momma

I use dawn as a stain pretreater. It works really well with a toothbrush. laundry is expensive, I the biggest bottle of Tide with downy about every 6 weeks. I also use a big bottle fabric softer with vinegar every 6 weeks. (The biggest name brand cheapest price , it's blue final touch think is it) The big box of purex dry bleach a$1.97 every month. So laundry is my biggest household expense. Never washed clothes in dish liqiud worried about soap scum.

I'm confused. . . you buy laundry detergent with softener, AND use additional fabric softener? Why both? Just curious.