Bucket of Bubbles

Science was not a strong subject for me. The strong evidence is in my first attemp to make home made laundry soap. It looked like an easy enough thing to do, so when I ran out of laundry soap last week, I picked up the supplies and Saturday I made the attempt. I wish I'd taken photo's so you all could giggle along with me at the mess I made. But alas, I was busy panicking.

Things seemed to be going okay. I carefully measured out the ingredients and started putting them in a big pot my hubs had.

Important notes for making your own homemade laundry soap

*if you are going to try making home made laundry soap, start with a much larger pot than you think you need.
*if you are going to try making home made laundry soap, know there IS a difference between baking soda and washing soda.  

FYI: baking soda is bicarbonate and washing soda is carbonate. What difference does it make, you may ask? A HUGE difference! 

Huge as in: baking soda + hot water = LOTS OF BUBBLES.  

I used pink Zote in the recipe so the massive bubbling coming up and over my pot looked like one of those 1950's pink poodles squeezing it's way out! 

The good news is that as soon as I removed the pot from the heat the pink bubbles subsided and my stove top, counter top and sink are squeeky clean.

I was able to finish the batch by moving it to a larger pot. Turns out I didn't really need to "cook" it. Just melt the Zote. 

I read on-line that you can make baking soda into washing soda by spreading out some on a baking sheet in the oven for a little while. According to the article, it will make a goey bubble substance that crystalizes and loses the bi in bicarbonate. I'm not going to test this out, though... I'll invest in the washing soda instead. I can always use the baking soda in room freshner recipes and baking. I have washed a couple of loads of laundry with the new soap and I'm happy with the results. BTW, it doesn't suds up in the washing machine, even with the baking soda! LOL.

Update:  success story