Why I Gave Up on Homemade ~ A Story of Soap and Science

It all started with the socks. After just a few months of using my homemade laundry soap, our white socks started looking grubby and gray. Sweat stains weren't coming out of our workout clothes like they used to. Then, when I starting washing Felicity's clothes, her cute light pink dresses turned to a dingy gray washout color... All of these things should have been clues that our homemade soap wasn't doing the trick, but I kept using it.

When we switched over to cloth diapers, a wonderful friend guided me to FluffLoveUniversity.com and kindly mentioned that I shouldn't use my homemade "detergent" with the diapers. I am a big fan of scientific evidence, facts, and studies so I kept digging to figure out why. What was so wrong with my homemade laundry soap? Its all natural, safe for babies' sensitive skin... Win win! Right?

Wrong.

What I found out was initially shocking, but the more I read, the more it all made sense.

1 - Homemade "detergent" ISN'T detergent at all.

"According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) A detergent is made up of Surfactants, Builders, Bleaches, Colorants, Optical Brighteners, Solvents, Wash Water" (source)

"Surfactants are molecules that are made up of a head that is hydrophilic (water loving) and a tail that is hydropobic (loves grease and dirt). In the wash, the fecal matter and urine attach to the hydrophobic section of the surfactant and are lifted away with the water by the hydrophilic section."
(source)

Basically, real detergent MUST contain Surfactants since those are the molecules that really do the heavy lifting to get things clean.

The homemade stuff I used has the following ingredients:
Fels Naptha bar soap - Use: Stain Pretreater
Washing soda - Use: Water Softener
Baking soda - Use: Brightener
Borax - Use: Water Softener
Purex Crystals - Use: Scent booster

 .... no surfactants? uh oh! This mix is really just a bunch of water softeners and brighteners with a tiiiiny amount of soap. Yes, water softeners are important to use when laundering in hard water (more on that here), but alone they really don't do any cleaning at all! How is that supposed to clean regular everyday dirt let alone poop and pee from diapers?! Yikes!

2 - The amount of soap is just not enough!

The recipe above recommends 2 Tbsp of laundry "detergent" per load of laundry. With all the various ingredients in that mix, the actual quantity of soap in the washer is pretty much insignificant. Now if we add a whole lot of the homemade mix to compensate for the tiny amout of soap, you'd end up with buildup and soap scum residue on your clothing, since the Fels Naptha soap is really not formulated to work in a washing machine. It won't break down properly, causing it to redeposit onto your clothing along with all the dirt and oil it traps causing, you guessed it, GREY SOCKS. Gross.

Yikes. So not only does this stuff not work, it isn't even really laundry detergent.

Ok, Now What?

I was so discouraged to read this, but it really confirmed my suspicions that our "detergent" was not doing the trick. I thought I was doing the inexpensive, healthy thing for my family! Turns out, not so much! I started by figuring out what I could use to keep my cloth diapers clean, and went from there. 

There is tons of misinformation out there about cloth diaper cleaning, but it turns out you can use almost any detergent, as long as it has surfactants (aka, is a real detergent!), and doesn't contain fabric softener (which can cause your diapers to repel wetness rather than absorb it). FluffLoveUniversity.com has an awesome detergent index which tells you what detergents are safe, which are not, and how much to use for your pre-wash and regular wash.

(For those who don't know, it is important to do a short wash cycle before your "main wash" with cloth diapers, so you aren't doing the majority of your wash in dirty water).

At first, I picked up a weaker plant-based detergent at the dollar store because it was really CHEAP, $4 for a huge jug that boasted it would last for 105 loads. Don't get me wrong, this worked just fine, but because it was so weak, I had to use a FULL cap in my pre-wash and TWO caps full in my main wash. Let me tell you, it did NOT last for 105 loads... not even close. Not so cheap after all!

Back to the Drawing Board

When all else fails, defer to the experts. Who is the laundry expert, you ask? TIDE. I know, I know, its not very crunchy, natural or free from synthetic chemicals... but it WORKS. When it came down to it, I had to decide between chemical free** and clean... I'm sorry, but if clean is wrong, I don't want to be right! Let me tell you, after just ONE wash with Tide Original Liquid Detergent, my clothes are looking worlds better. If Tide is too much for your budget, or you're looking for something a little different, check out this awesome flow chart. It is intended for cloth diaper users, but it really applies to any laundry! I'm planning to try Foca in the future, since I've heard really good things about it and its very budget friendly.

What About that Soap Scum Build-up?

Since my clothes, towels, bedding etc. have all been washed in this non-detergent for over 2 years, they have taken quite a beating. The bedding in particular was starting to look dingy so I did a strip cycle to get it looking really new again. Stripping is a chemical process that pulls all the junk out of your fabrics, such as soap scum or hard water buildup, which I had in SPADES. Wondering if you need to strip your fabrics/cloth diapers? Check out this graphic from fluffloveuniversity.com to know if you should do a strip:

I went down that list and it was a bunch of YES answers, so I headed for the tub with my *gasp* CHEMICALS to fix this. Beware, you should always wear gloves when handling these harsh chemicals, and this is not a gentle process for your fabrics so this should not be a frequent practice. If you find yourself stripping your cloth diapers often, most likely they are not being cleaned properly with your wash routine. If thats your issue, check out FluffLoveUniversity.com to see how to get them clean-really clean- in the first place. Here's what you need to do to strip your laundry!

I chose the DIY mix (of course), and I didn't have Calgon on hand but I used the washing soda and borax with a little Tide to strip my pretty quilt that was white once upon a time. This is what I started with:

YIKES. Do you see that water? That was after a whole 10 minutes in the strip soak. I let it soak like that for 4 hours while the water cooled, then pulled it out, rinsed it in the washer, and dried it before putting it back on the bed. The difference is like night and day. I'll let you see for yourself:

Hello gorgeous! It feels so soft and smooth and clean, just like the day we unwrapped it at our wedding shower! This is the only thing I've stripped so far, but our towels are next and I'll be sure to share those results as well.

So What Have We Learned?

There is a lot of fear mongering out there surrounding "chemicals"... You know what? 

Chemical (kĕm′ĭ-kəl) noun.
A substance with a distinct molecular composition that is produced by or used in a chemical process.

**EVERYTHING is made of chemicals. You are chemicals. The phone you're looking at this with is chemicals. Your delicious organic snack is made of chemicals. Some chemicals are more dangerous than others, certainly, and we should be careful to educate ourselves about things we use in our homes and around our families. We should also be aware, however, that "all natural" things can be just as dangerous as synthetic, harmful chemicals, and the reverse- that science and synthetic chemical products are not all bad! It is naive to be innately suspicious of something just because it doesn't come from the earth. Sometimes, science brings us fabulous solutions to problems in our lives and with proper research and information, it is wise to embrace those solutions.

My socks are white, my daughter's light pink dresses are light pink again, and everything feels soft and truly clean. If the reason for that comes in an orange bottle, I still consider that a WIN!

Have more questions about stripping, hard water, diaper laundry or something else? Leave me a comment or stop in at my Facebook page! Thanks for reading :)

xo Allison