Curious about laundry detergent...

Yes, TSP is good stuff, but not when released into the environment untreated . If the waste water goes through  a treatment plant it's used up since treatment plants must add phosphorus in order to work. In my case it would go through my septic system and if not used up by the bugs then it goes into the soil where there are organisms and plants just waiting to make use of it.

There are other chemicals as well that would be beneficial in the wash, And believe it or not I use at least one in cooking when I make cheese sauce or processed cheese. If one has eaten American cheese, yes, you've eaten it. American cheese can't be made without it.

Thanks Andrew, I'd forgotten that! It'll make my laundry soap better.

not sure what chemical you're referring to.

I know some people use salt in their laundry soap as well as vinegar. I think the salt helps combat hard water minerals.

Would you be willing to share your recipe?

Sure.  The breakdown was 35% sodium carbonate (plain old arm and hammer washing soda works great, but you can get it much cheaper in bulk), 35% Borax, and the remaining 30% was our cold process soap blend (substitute fels naptha or another bar made for laundry. Regardless of what you may read on some housewife's blog, don't use just any old bar soap.  You'll ruin your clothes).  We had large food processor that we'd use to grind up everything into fine powder for 60-75 seconds, and then add in whatever fragrance oil we wanted it to smell like for the last 15 seconds of processing. It works great, but you do need to keep whites separate and use bleach with your whites to keep them super bright (or oxy clean). For fragrance amounts - it really doesn't take much. Anything more than 0.1 ounces per pound and you risk your clothes smelling like you just came out of a French bordello. And speaking of fragrance oils, I've got hundreds of fragrance samples (0.5 oz up to 2 oz) saved up from testing over the years. If anyone ever wants some to make their own soap or laundry soap, just let me know.  As long as you'll cover shipping, you can have as many as you'd like.

Thanks, this sounds fun. I'll definitely take you up on the offer for some of your superfluous sample fragrances too. Would you mind adding some to my next order from Stirling? By the way, I've been wanted to place an order from you for weeks but I'm waiting for the brush to be back in stock. Any idea when that might be?

One more aside, I've never actually used an entire tub of any soap, but I came close this summer to using all of my tub of orange chill. Fantastic soap!

not sure what chemical you're referring to.  

I know some people use salt in their laundry soap as well as vinegar.  I think the salt helps combat hard water minerals.

Salt does nothing to remove calcium from the water unless it's in an ion exchange water softener. Unless the calcium is removed the water is just as hard before the addition of salt as afterward.

The chemical I refer to is sodium hexametaphosphate. Or is it sodium meta hexa phosphate? Let me find out.

The first one was correct: >>>>>>>>>>click here<<<<<<<<<

It's commonly used in making process cheese and such. That's what I use it for. Now in the laundry too.

Thanks, this sounds fun.  I'll definitely take you up on the offer for some of your superfluous sample fragrances too.  Would you mind adding some to my next order from Stirling?  By the way, I've been wanted to place an order from you for weeks but I'm waiting for the brush to be back in stock.  Any idea when that might be?  

One more aside, I've never actually used an entire tub of any soap, but I came close this summer to using all of my tub of orange chill.  Fantastic soap!

Just leave me a message in the comment box on our checkout screen as a reminder, and I'll add in as many as I can get in the box. If you have any preferences, let me know there as well and if I have anything close I'll make sure to put it in.

The brushes will be back next week, barring any holdup from customs. Glad you liked the Orange Chill.