I used two tablespoons full in a warm wash as I have a big top loading machine. I also disolved it first as the soap in my mix was in bigger pieces than the rest of the mix.
It did work -my washing (sheets, towels, socks and t-shirts) was clean and smelled of roses.
On the cost front however I doubt if it is much of a cost saver for a seasoned bargin hunter like me.
I can't to a full comparison as I can't recall what I paid for the Washing Soda, Woolworths has it at $4.08 per kg but I would have paid less. I did use a $1 worth of soap and around $2.75 worth of Borax. Add that to the Washing Soda and the entire mixture (4 cups) weighed just over 700g. That is 66.6 tablespoons.
On Saturday I bought laundry powder at $3 for 2x500g boxes. One scoop of laundry powder = 4 tablespoons.
With that comparison the powder does come out cheaper even though you use twice as much.
However I seldom manage to get laundry powder that cheap.
One thing interesting to note was how the home made mix looked. Apart from the little lumps of white soap in mine (I should have used a finner grating disk:-\) it looks like normal laundry powder.
The Bin Inn has another recipe:
MAKE Laundry Powder125g bar of Lemon Laundry Soap
1Kg Washing Soda
Powderise soap in food processor (chop up small with knife first). Add washing soda and mix together in food processor. Use only 15g per load (1 tablespoon). HINT - Do not buy expensive fabric softener. Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda to the final rinse to whiten, soften and deodorise.
http://www.bininn.co.nz/cleaningFrameset.htmThat looks much cheaper and sounds a lot like what housewives used during WWII when soap was rationed.
