I have an admission to make. (yes, another one) My clothes stink. Well, they did. They stank no matter what I did to get the stink out.
UGH!
I tried numerous laundry detergents – even the expensive HE ones. I used a little soap. I used a lot of soap. I added a little bit bleach to EVERY load – not good for black socks, by the way. I used vinegar in the rinse cycle. I used extra fabric softener. I added Borax to every load. I tried baking soda too. Nothing stopped my clothes from having a sour smell to them. The most annoying part of it was that when the clothes were just out of the dryer, they smelled fine, but after a few days in the closet or drawers, they started to smell sour again, so I would have to re-wash them. And heaven forbid that I sweat a little bit! Immediately, my clothes would stink like I had run a marathon in them. I live in South Florida, and constantly working on some project outside, so this was especially not pleasant.
This went on for about a year. Just as long as we’ve been living in our new house. So, of course, I thought it was because the water system was messed up (we have a well, not city water). Called the water guys out here ten times. I’m not kidding. TEN times. They love me. $4000 and two “upgrades” to our system later, it wasn’t the water.
After a few months, I ever asked my doctor if I could be sick or something, like rotting from the inside and the smell was escaping from me. He assured me that this was not possible. Whew! I was worried for a bit there. But I made him test me anyway, you know, just in case. Turns out, he was right, it wasn’t that. Let’s be serious for a second here: I don’t think there really is a “am I stinky on the inside and it’s coming out of my pores” test, but he humored me. But, I am inching towards high cholesterol though – gotta watch my butter intake. Fabulous.
What it came down to is that we have a front loading washer. It was supposed to conserve water, use less soap, be kinder to your clothes and be more efficient. Yet, somehow this translates into longer wash cycles and stinky clothes. I clean it faithfully, wiping down the rubber seal once a week or so. I also run it twice a month through the “cleaning cycle” with a bucket load of bleach. I keep the door open when we aren’t using it. Nothing helps.
Hmmm… that’s not quite how fabulous I thought it was going to be in my head BEFORE we bought it.I thought it was going to be the end to fifty small loads of laundry and the beginning of just two HUGE loads a week. I was going to be saving the earth’s natural resources. And Kelly Ripa and I would bond over our washing machine talk if we ever met on the street one day. Sadly it wasn’t like that at all.
So after trying about thirty different soaps, I was going to try yet another. I’ve been seeing a million pins all over Pinterest about homemade laundry soap, and never did I think it would HONESTLY work! I mean, come on! Those were the soaps my grandmother used! Only “crunchy” mommies use homemade soap, right? Modern science has made laundry soap and washing machines so much better now. Right? Uhm. No.
So, after all this time, I did it. I went and bought the following items…
Borax + Super Washing Soda + Fels Naptha Soap
I grated the Fels-Naptha, yes, with a cheese grater. Then I put it in the glass jar previously containing some other random powder soap that didn’t work, but did give me hives. Yep, that was fun. Not really.
To each full size load of laundry I add one-half tablespoon of Fels-Naptha, one-half tablespoon of Borax and one-half tablespoon of Super Washing Soda. Some of the other blogs say to mix the ingredients together in hot water to dissolve into a liquid, but I don’t. I just put it all in dry, in the detergent drawer’s spot for dry laundry soap. Some people also mix the three dry ingredients together, and just use one and a half tablespoons of the mixture, but I don’t do that either.
My laundry soap set up
I do add 1/2 cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle, which makes your clothes softer. Don’t worry, your clothes won’t smell like salad. They will smell clean. They will smell fresh. They will NOT STINK!! And my washer smells better too. And I still use bleach for the whites.
I do admit that I still use dryer sheets, because I love the way they smell. Some people add Dr. Bonner’s Rose Castile liquid soap or essential oils to their mixtures to make it smell fragrant. I don’t, mostly because I’m too cheap to use it on laundry – essential oils stuff can get costly, and I have no idea where to get the Dr. Bonner’s soap.
I don’t know why it works as well as it does, but it is like a laundry miracle.
Oh, and it’s way, WAY cheaper too! The Fels-Naptha is $0.97 a bar, Super Washing Soda is $3.24 and the Borax is $3.38 a box. And I get a ton of loads out of it all.
The only thing I would warn about is that some people with sensitive skin have mentioned that the Borax bothers them. I have not had that problem, and neither has anyone else in my family, so I can’t attest to that. If you know you are sensitive to Borax, then please don’t use this recipe.
I hope you give it a try. Even if you aren’t crunchy. Even if you don’t have a front loading washer. Because the bottom line is: it works. Really.
Random Question: Do you by any chance know how to get the sticky stuff off that lid??
Have a great day!
Sarah says
Eliesa I love that you don’t have to mix everything together and keep a bucket of goop in your laundry room. That was the one thing stopping me from making my own detergent. Thanks for sharing.
A Pinterest Addict says
Yeah, I didn’t think the goop looked very appetizing myself. 🙂 One thing I might try is to use a blender to blend it all together to a fine powder, and use just one jar to keep it in. The top of the washer gets pretty crowded with three big canisters.
Alyssa says
I use the homemade kind and I don’t think I would ever go back to the expensive name brand stuff!! I do mix all of mine together (dry) and store it that way just for convenience. I like to add a little Oxy Clean to the mix for my boyfriend’s work clothes, too! (He is a walking grease-bomb!)
Janis Steward says
I have heard about this!! How hard was it to find Fels-Naptha soap?? that’s a new one for me. I really dislike that sour smell too, and yes…it happens here! It’s like a mildew smell that gets stronger when you sweat in the clothes. Thanks for sharing your idea! Love your new blog design…very crisp, and clean…bet it smells good too!!!
A Pinterest Addict says
Not hard at all! I found all of it at Walmart.
Thanks for checking out the new design. I like how clean it is, and easier to navigate, but some of that is because i cleaned up a lot when I got back from Haven. They had so many tips about it that were so spot on! Call Brooke, she is fantastic!
Lori says
I saw this before too. I had my doubts, but not now! Definitely going to try it!
A Pinterest Addict says
So worth it! This stuff is literally a prayer answered.
india says
You can buy Dr. Bronners soap at Target.
A Pinterest Addict says
Thank you! I’m going to buy some today!
Beth says
Try olive oil on the sticky stuff. If that doesn’t work, try WD40 if you have some lying around. If you have to go buy it, just buy Goo Gone instead. It will definitely work. Googone.com
merefaer says
I might have to try this homemade soap business. Also, great site! I love Pinterest but often wished there was a consumer report-like site for some pins. And thanks to you and a few others now there is! RE: sticky lid – try soaking it in hot water with some OxyClean. After a 15 minute soak, the gooey stuff should rub right off.
Janet Monaghan Fair says
I thought it was only me because my husband said he didn’t smell anything and that I was crazy.
I went and bought ALL of the items today . I came home and used the bleach to tub clean the washer and used the cheese grater for the soap. In my case I mixed all 3 dry ingredients equal parts (2 cups of each) in one plastic container(since I have 2 boys doing their own wash).
I am doing a load now …..hopefully it works!!!! Fingers crossed.
A Pinterest Addict says
So, how did it work for you?
DeeDee Keefer says
We bought a very expensive Maytag washer and it wasn’t a front load. We had the same stinky thing happen and every time we ran out of one laundry soap we change to another. I even sold laundry soap used by professional cleaners and it didn’t help. We sold it at a garage sale and bought a front load washer. That’s when the salesman told me I should’ve had the washer checked out, because some were not adding enough water during the cycles and therefore, NOT rinsing out the odor causing bacteria. So, to be safe, you might look into that, if the problem shows up again.
I want you to know, when my clothes started smelling rank after just an hour, I thought I was nuts and thought something was medically wrong too!!! When we got the new washer, we could tell which clothes had been washed recently and which weren’t. We washed all our clothes immediately!!
A Pinterest Addict says
I am so glad that I am not the only one! People who haven’t had stinky clothes after washing them – repeatedly – just think I’m over reacting. It is a horrible feeling to not be able to fix it! Love that this is working for us. I am running an extra rinse cycle on each load, and that is helping too. 🙂
Judi says
I’m going to try it too. I had that problem also in my LG frontloader. Like other I kept switching and when I tried All brand liquid it seemed to help. It was in a white bottle. I always buy the he kind. The one thing that I do that seems to help is I add extra pre wash and extra rinse to loads with most things like towels, sheets, yard work clothes, etc. It takes a while but it seems to help. I took the cups that are removeable out of the detergent, bleach and fabric dispensers the other day and the undersides of all of them had a black sooty mold on them so I have that all nice and clean now and I do have a place at the bottom front of mine where you can occasionally drain the pump and some pretty gross looking water drains out from there. I love the washer but its a lot more trouble than the old top loading GE I bought for peanuts that was green and lasted for decades!
Wendy says
Hi, is this safe for a septic system?
A Pinterest Addict says
We have a septic system, so I looked into whether it was okay. Based on what I found, it is. I haven’t had any problems with it at all.
Irene says
I made this and I LOVE IT thank you soo much. I was very dicouraged with my front loader, but this turn everything around. There is no more stinky clothes and the washer smells good too. I am telling everyone I know that has a front loader. Thanks again
A Pinterest Addict says
I am so glad it worked for you! I know how relieved I was to have it work for me – I was so tired of stinky clothes! 🙂
Ruth-Ann says
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I, too, live in southwest Florida and have a well and septic system. No matter what I used, I had the “stinky” laundry syndrom. I had all the same thoughts as you, ie; is it me? etc. I went to Walmart and purchased the products you recommended and went to work. I shredded the Fels-Naptha and measured it. Pressed down, it measured about a cup and a half. I dumped the shredded soap into a large container and added the same amount of the Borax and the A&H Washing Powder and mixed it up. I wanted to see if this worked before I mixed more, plus I wanted to use the Borax alone to scrub my tub and other things. Then I proceeded to wash everything. The more I washed, the more excited I got. EVERYTHING smelled so wonderful and fresh. I added a half cup of white vineger to the rinse of some loads and some without. Either way, they come out soft and fresh! My husband’s clothes were the big test. He works construction and his clothes reek when he comes home! No problem! And, my laundry room smells fresh all the time, as well as my washer (I have the typical top loader).
Also, for the first load, I disolved the mixture in a cup of hot water, thinking I had to melt the shaved soap. The next load I added the soap mixture to the washer as it filled up and let it start without clothes for a minute or two before I added clothes. This worked, too. Then, I did a load where I added the mixture as the tub was filling and immediately added the clothes. This also worked to melt the soap shavings. So, that’s how I do it all the time now. Water, soap, clothes, walk away. I love it!
Rayni says
The sticky residue from tape, glue, labels, etc can almost always be taken off with plain rubbing alcohol. Rub lightly with a soaked cotton ball or rag and it should come right off. Just make sure to turn the fan on as it is a very potent smell.
sweetandpreciouspeach says
I tried the liquid version of homemade laundry soap based on the same ingredients. Maybe my family is dirtier, but I had big problems with stains on all our shirts. I never pretreated spots when I used Tide, so maybe I was just in lazy mode. I learned pretty quickly since within 3 weeks almost every shirt in the house had a stain on the front. Now I’m using Tide for colors and whites, and homemade for towels, darks and reds.
Donnalee says
I’m gonna try this next time I’m out of laundry soap. I’ve made my own face soap for years (no one knows I’m 60!) My mom used Fels Naptha all the time in her old wringer washer, the added ingredients would definitely help!
A Pinterest Addict says
You will have to give me the ingredients for your face soap!
Monique says
I’m a little late to comment on this post but apparently, there can be problems using powder detergent in the septic system and I’ve read that Fels Naphtha may cause septic tank problems.
http://barefootmommy.blogspot.com/2011/05/septic-friendly-homemade-laundry.html
Good info at this blog.
A Pinterest Addict says
I have never heard of that… Going to check it out. Thanks for the heads up.