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mixing metaphors is nothing compared to mixing chemicals.

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 11:16 am
by trinder
Hi all, first let me apologise by saying I would like to give credit to the person who posted this but I cannot recall who. It was either someone on here or a link from here, so apologies in advance.
I cut and pasted this - then saved it to my "one day" to do list. Well at last that day has come and I have made it.

Washing powder/gel

Hi, hope this idea helps you, I've been using it for years! Ok first buy some pure
soap flakes. You can usually pick up a box cheap enough from your nearest largish
supermarket. Measure out two cups and place in a non-aluminium saucepan. Add half a
litre of water and gently heat until the flakes have completely dissolved. In the meantime
measure out one cup of the soda crystals, and gently fill the cup with boiling water
(crystals will dissolve easily), give it a stir to ensure these have dissolved properly.
Now carefully add the crystal mixture to the saucepan with the flakes and on low heat,
stir quickly. After a very short time this mixture will turn gloopy, like thick porridge
ok? Take off the heat. Now you'll need a fairly big plastic bucket with a lid. Say 2-3
gallon? Tip the mixture into the bucket, and using the saucepan, top the bucket up to
the top with hot water. At this point the mixture will look as thin as water. Don't worry!
Leave overnight and the following day it would of thickened back to thick porridge type
consistency. I use one cup of this per load of washing (I have a front loader) and I add
this "gel" to the drawer. It doesn’t have a "fresh" smell as modern detergents have so
either use fabric softener, or essential oils of your choice (lavender is good). I would
think you'd have to be a bit choosy using these with certain fabrics. I also use this mixture
to clean my kitchen and bathroom and it lasts for yonks! I emailed the company that
makes the soda crystals, about 6 years ago. I told them about this gel, and they emailed
me back just to thank me for sharing it with them. About 6 months later ? Yep you
guessed it, the gel product was on the shelf in the supermarket!

My question is ( I cannot smell so it makes little difference but for others I m sure it is important). I wanted to add a fragrance, but the essential oils are expensive.
Would I be able to add a whole bottle of Zoflora (120ml) and generally kick up the fragrance. The bucket that I made it in last night has approximately 3 gallons of the gloop- or would there be a "wrongness" to adding an antibacterial to this chemical mixture?

Re: mixing metaphors is nothing compared to mixing chemicals

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 6:26 pm
by Green Aura
I don't know, is the simple answer. I couldn't find out what it's made of.

Do you really need to wash your clothes in a concentrated disinfectant though?

In the 2-3 gallons of gloop you would only need to add a 10ml bottle of lavender EO -£2ish, it doesn't need to be a therapeutic grade oil. Or you can buy fragrance oils which are dirt cheap and you can get all sorts of aromas.

Re: mixing metaphors is nothing compared to mixing chemicals

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 11:38 pm
by trinder
Thanks Maggie . I did think that I needed The therapeutic grade oil. I will happily invest in the Lavender and I had no idea that just 10ml will give me the nice after smell that I want.