DIY HOMEMADE LAUNDRY POWDER

Laundry Powder ain't cheap. $7 bucks a pop and in our flat it runs out like nobody's business. Nor is it particularly easy to decipher the ingredients on the pack, what's okay, what's not okay. Often the safe natural ingredients have science-y names just like the unsafe ones.

You've seen the commercials -  popular laundry brands promise to make caring, responsible wives and mothers out of us, swooning over our dirty kids as they bounce in from soccer practice; gracefully scooping our husbands' dirty undies off the ground without a flinch of resentment. Funny thing is, responsibility comes not from buying into, but bypassing all that brand-washing and simply reading the ingredients. Many of these mainstream brands contain dodgy substances like SLS, synthetic perfume, glycol, dyes, phosphates, 1,4-dioxane, chlorine, DEA, formaldehyde and petrochemicals - the wolves in Stepford Wife clothing.

If you or your loved ones experience skin irritations like eczema, psoriasis, itchiness, sensitivity or allergic reactions, it's likely that your laundry powder is a culprit. I'm not sayin those mainstream brands will kill you, but you definitely can do just fine without them. 

Between cost, corporates and chemicals I've come to love the DIY option. It's cheap, simple to make, non-toxic, hypoallergenic, biodegradable and pH sensitive. Oh and it works too!

You'll need:

• 2 cups  soda ash (also known as washing soda, or sodium carbonate)
  
• 2 cups baking soda
• 120ml liquid castile soap
  
• Optional - essential oil (20-40 drops) - I used a blend of Rose, Patchouli and Ylang Ylang.
  

You can buy this stuff from Bin Inn, some supermarkets and bulk stores, or have a scan online for the best deals.

Instructions:

Place soda ash and baking soda in a food processor and whizz it up.  Slowly drizzle in the liquid castile soap while the processor is running to create a white powder. Then add the essential oil and process until you have a uniform powder.

And you're done! Store it in a sealed container and use one regular scoop per load.
 
If you really want to save some coin, try the recipe below - you can buy all the ingredients for pennies at Bin Inn:

• 2c borax
• 2c soda ash
  
• 2c soap flakes, or 2 grated cakes of soap - such as goats' milk soap (for sensitive skin) or sunlight soap

Repeat process as above. You can double these recipes to make big batches at a time.