.white stuff.

I finally had a go at making my own washing powder. I bought the ingredients for it a few months ago and they sat in my laundry, patiently waiting. I don't like having more than one bottle/box of something opened at a time, so I made myself wait until I had finished my bought box of powder first.

I was super easy. I have seen a few variations of making your own washing powder around, but I opted for the trusty food processor method. Everything in, quick whiz and it was done. I didn't grate the soap though as I already had a box of partly used lux soap flakes so I put those in instead.

I haven't done the maths, but everyone swears that it is way cheaper than buying your own. Guess it depends what brand you usually buy. Takes a bit of getting used to only putting 1 tablespoon of powder into the big machine, but it seems to wash just as well as anything I have ever used. The only down side is that it doesn't really have a smell...maybe just a bit of a soapy smell. You can put essential oils into the machine if you want to, but the no smell factor doesn't really bother me.

Washing powder
2c grated pure soap
1c washing soda
1c borax
500g bicarb

grate soap – everything in food processor, whiz till fine
use 1tbs per load
(and yes...because of the copious amounts of Tupperware that I own thanks to the old demonstrator days, I store my washing powder in a veg-out...designed for potatoes and onions! It works really well actually!)
P.S. In the events of moving I just realised that I forgot to draw a winner from my last competition (okay....bribe!). Thanks so much for all of the emails and messages I received, they were all very helpful!

ANDREA KING you are the lucky winner! So if you send me an email with your postal address I will send your pattern off as soon as I have finished writing them up :)