I use one bar of bar soap with 1/2 cup borax and 1 cup washing soda. Some people use a full cup of borax, while others use less than the half cup or none at all, saying borax is too hard on the clothes. I use about 1.5 to 2 tablespoons per load.
This time I cubed the soap and put everything in the food processor. (The "dry" ingredients seem to be important to get nice small chunks of soap in the food processor... as I discovered when I ran out of washing soda.) I've also been known to grate the soap and then use the blender on the whole thing to get nice small grains. The finer the end product, the more easily it will dissolve in the washing machine.
Some people cook the soap, borax, and washing soda in water on the stove top and get a liquid washing soap that is supposed to dissolve better... my experience with that was that it was more work and you got this stringy mess that was really annoying to deal with. The fine powder seems to dissolve okay in cold wash water, but I like to give it a head start by starting the machine on hot water, putting the soap in, and then swishing the first 1/2 inch of water around with something cotton in the laundry, then fill the rest of the way with cold water.
This time I cubed the soap and put everything in the food processor. (The "dry" ingredients seem to be important to get nice small chunks of soap in the food processor... as I discovered when I ran out of washing soda.) I've also been known to grate the soap and then use the blender on the whole thing to get nice small grains. The finer the end product, the more easily it will dissolve in the washing machine.
Some people cook the soap, borax, and washing soda in water on the stove top and get a liquid washing soap that is supposed to dissolve better... my experience with that was that it was more work and you got this stringy mess that was really annoying to deal with. The fine powder seems to dissolve okay in cold wash water, but I like to give it a head start by starting the machine on hot water, putting the soap in, and then swishing the first 1/2 inch of water around with something cotton in the laundry, then fill the rest of the way with cold water.
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