What do you CHCP moms use for laundry detergent?

[gatorsmom]

I just ordered the Clean House, Clean Planet book and am excited to start making my own cleaning supplies. But I was just wondering- what do you use for Laundry detergent? Is there a recipe for it in the book? Just wondering.

[JTsMom]

I've seen a lot of homemade laundry soap recipes on MDC, but I haven't tried any of them yet. They mostly involve some combo of grated soap (usually Ivory or Dr. Bronners), washing soda and sometimes OxyClean or Borax. One post I read recently talked about just grating soap directly into the washer and adding the washing soda and she said it worked great.

A lot of others recommend Charlies http://www.charliesoap.com/products/

I'm on my second bag of it right now. It makes the clothes feel so soft and clean, and there is no artificial scent lingering, which I love. It rinses out really well, so there is no residue left on the clothes.

It works pretty well, and I'm reasonably happy with it, but it doesn't do a great job on stains unless you pre-treat. DS constantly has food stains on his clothes, and if I don't pre-treat them, the Charlies doesn't do much for them, where Tide knocked close 3/4 of them out.

[bubbaray]

I don't make my own laundry detergent or stain remover, hand dish detergent or dishwasher detergent. All other cleaners are from the CHCP book. I use Arm & Hammer Essentials laundry detergent, Ecover liquid dish soap and Electrosol d/w detergent. The A&H laundry stuff is the only stuff I can use on DD#2's clothes b/c of her severe eczema. I've tried a bunch of different d/w detergents and they either don't clean or they leave spots and I have to run a 2nd rince cycle, which isn't exactly enviro friendly either.... I really do like the Ecover liquid dish detergent though. Smells great, works really well and is so gentle I can wash dishes without wearing rubber gloves....

[MommyAllison]

Ditto what Melissa said - I still use conventional laundry detergent, liquid dishsoap, and dishwasher detergent. Our dishwasher is old and doesn't do a great job anyway, so we've stayed with Electrasol tabs, and Tide is the only thing that doesn't irritate our eczema and gets cloth diapers clean, so we've stayed with that as well. I'm not too loyal to any liquid dish soap - don't remember if she gave a recipe for that in the book or not (mine is on loan to a friend, or I'd check). IIRC, in the book she mentioned that she hadn't found any great alternatives to laundry detergent or dishwasher detergent. We do make everything else ourselves though.