Posted on 09/16/2023 3:07:53 PM PDT by CottonBall
This is an ongoing thread – meaning come back to chat, post information, or ask questions any time. Hopefully the thread won’t stagnate and I’ll do better at posting weekly (or bi-weekly) topics than I have in the past. (anyone willing to post a topic now and then we'll be highly praised and appreciated).
We are in for some bumpy rides, and prepping can only help. If for peace of mind, if nothing else. We have a wonderful gardening thread and a current-events survival/prepping thread, and hopefully this one can piggyback off of those, maybe having a longer discussion about certain topics or … whatever. It's your thread, do what you like with it! (civilly, of course)
Here are granny’s threads, if anyone wants to peruse them:
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #1
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #2
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #3
Globalists Will Use Carbon Controls to Stop You From Growing Your Own Food
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4214524/posts
In early 2020 in the midst of the covid lockdowns, blue states run by leftist governors pursued mandates with extreme prejudice. In red states like Montana, after the first month or two most of us simply ignored the restrictions and went on with life as usual. It was clear that covid was not the threat federal authorities made it out to be. However, in states like Michigan the vice was squeezed tighter and tighter under the direction of shady leaders like Gretchen Whitmer.
Whitmer used covid as an opportunity to institute some bizarre limitations on the public, including a mandate barring larger stores from selling seeds and garden supplies to customers. “If you’re not buying food or medicine or other essential items, you should not be going to the store,” Whitmer said when announcing her order. The leftist governor was fine with purchases of lottery tickets and liquor, but not gardening tools and seeds.
She never gave a logical reason why she targeted garden supplies, but most people in the preparedness community understood very well what this was all about: This was a beta-test for wider restrictions on food independence. There was widespread rhetoric in the media throughout 2020 attacking anyone stockpiling necessities as “hoarders,” and now they were going after people planning ahead and trying to grow their own food. The establishment did NOT want people to store or produce a personal food supply.
Another prospect that was being openly discussed among globalists was the idea that lockdowns were “helpful” in ways beyond stopping the spread of covid (the lockdowns were actually useless in stopping the spread of covid). They suggested that the these measures could be effective in preventing global carbon emissions and saving the world from “climate change.” The idea of climate lockdowns began to spread.
more at link...
Recipes & Costs
Easy powder laundry detergent: (‘easy’ is questionable, lol)
1. 1 4-5 oz. bar of soap, grated*
2. 1 cup of borax
3. 1 cup of washing soda
Unwrap the Fels-Naptha soap and microwave at 30-second intervals on a paper plate until it gets all puffy. The puffiness makes the dense soap much simpler to grate to the fine texture that’s needed for easy dissolving. Allow the soap to cool completely before grating or it’ll get clumpy. Put it in a plastic grocery bag and run a rolling pin over it. If using Zote, dry well after microwaving and before processing - about 250°for 30 min. Or chop the cooled soap into chunks and place into a food processor one bar at a time. Add about 1/4 cup of the baking soda to keep the soap from clumping together. (You can also use a hand grater for this part, but it’ll take a little longer. Still easier with the puffy soap than if you had a regular bar.) Process until it’s really finely grated, resembling the texture of cornmeal. The more finely grated the soap is, the better it’ll dissolve in your washing machine, especially in cold water.
*1 3/4 cup Fels Naptha or 1 1/4 cup Zote, pulverized using the microwave method.
Use 1-2 tbsp per load.
Can add to 1 quart + 1 gallon water for a liquid/gel detergent.
Liquid laundry detergent
1/2 cup grated soap melted in 4 cups hot water, then add 1/4 cup Washing Soda and 1/4 cup Borax. Stir until smooth. Add 1/4 cup Vinegar. Will foam up when add vinegar, but keep stirring. Stir until cooled a little. Add 2 cups water and stir. Can add hot water if is too snot-like. Add 2 cups more water. And one more time. Stir constantly until cool. Use 1/4 - 1/3 capful. Works great!
If ends up like snot, then bring to a boil, then cool while whisking constantly to a smooth texture.
(I kept having to add water since it kept thickening up!)
1 recipe makes almost 100 ounces.
Cost Analysis – updated 2024
Super Wash Soda:
$5.38/55 oz = $0.0987/oz
1/4 cup = 2.5 oz
$0.0987/oz * 2.5 oz = $0.25/ 1/4 cup
Borax:
$5.97/65 oz = $0.092/oz
1/4 cup = 2 oz
$0.092/oz * 2 oz = $0.18 / 1/4 cup
Fels Naptha:
$1.78 per bar
1/2 cup is about 1/2 bar
$0.89 per 1/2 cup
Vinegar:
~$0.08 / 1/4 cup
Sum: $1.40 per 100 oz (Arm&Hammer $9.48, Equate $7.67)
$2.10 per 150 oz
Quite a cost savings!!
I used this recipe when DH and I first got married. It worked well, especially for normal cleaning. I still kept some store bought laundry detergent around for really soiled clothes.
Fels Naptha is a great soap for pretreating stains too… I scrubbed my boys’ baseball pants with it, wherever there were red clay stains from sliding into base etc.
When my girls were little, they liked to wear pink jeans and they’d get them dirty and grass stained.
Fels Naphtha got it all out every time, without fail.
“wherever there were red clay stains from sliding into base etc.”
that’s good to know, we have red clay here too. my white socks are permanently stained lol (so I thought!).
This may be a dumb question, but how is this recipe healthier than store bought detergent?
My solution these days has been to use way less dishwasher detergent and laundry detergent than they recommend. Hoping it rinses out completely that way! Seems to work with dishwasher.
On tough stains, I throw in some oxy-clean. Tips to do better would be appreciated!
Has anyone used Nellie’s Laundry Soda? (Canadian, but you can get it in the US) It looks very economical if you don’t want to make your own.
https://nelliesclean.com/products/laundry-soda?variant=39977678700613
I’ve read that modern machines are now designed to use less laundry detergent, so maybe we’re reaching the point of gain in this area? (My washer is easily 20 years old right now.)
I do SO MUCH LESS laundry than I used to - NO TEENAGERS in the house and Beau is no longer paving roads or ‘tarring’ anything and we’re both home now and retired, so just have a few ‘fancy outfits’ that we need for Weddings and Funerals. Everyday clothes DO get dirty on a farm, but so far, just general washing keeps us clean enough. ;)
Thanks!
Soaking is economical — with a load already damp and the dirt softened, you can use less water, less detergent and less agitation in the wash cycle; it's gentler on fabrics, threads and colors; and you only need one final rinse instead of two.
Pre-treating also helps clothes last because high dryer heat makes stains set in permanently. I keep spot and stain removers next to my laundry hamper upstairs and pre-treat spots before they go in the hamper. Rinse the spot product out in the nearest sink if letting it sit until laundry day might bleach the fabric. You will see right away if you need to retreat it, or use a soft brush or a different product to completely dissolve the stain and save that favorite shirt!
Before soak-cycling in the machine on laundry day, sort well, so that you can treat each load in the appropriate way during the soak cycle. Treat spots first. If rhe whole load needs treatment, such as for whitening, or dissolving mildew, heavy dirt or grease, be wary that some whole-load treatments like chlorine bleach or Lysol poured straight into a tub of wash will stain or bleach clothes beyond repair. So fill the washer tub first, measure and mix the treatment in well, and then dump in the clothes.
Pre-soak treatments include:
• spot treatment for rust stains
• liquid, spray or gel treatments for blood, food or grass stains
• liquid or spray treatments specifically for oil or grease
• powdered oxygen bleach or liquid chlorine bleach for a full load of whites
• a capful of Lysol for mildrew or body odors (careful—undiluted, it will bleach colors)
• a tablespoon or so of powdered borax or TSP for especially dirty or greasy work clothes.
Many people have good results pre-treating stains with lemon juice, or adding white vinegar to the soak or wash cycle. I notice that the price of both white vinegar and chlorine bleach has gone up 150% to 250% since the pandemic. Lemons are always expensive. The price of OxyClean powdered bleach increased 15% - 20% at first, but has come back down somewhat.
Many machines have a pre-soak cycle that goes automatically right into the wash cycle with the same water. If yours is like that, remember to add your detergent when the cycle changes; or you will have to add it with the treatment at the beginning.
I prefer a separate soak cycle that then drains out the dirty soak water, and refills clean water for the wash-with-detergent cycle.
Nothing beats really hot water to get whites clean (other than drying outdoors in summer sunlight). To me, it's money well spent instead of dingy white clothing. My machine lets me choose "cool", "cold" or "tap cold". If it is really cold outside, "tap cold" will be the coldest and cheapest to run. If your dark load is medium colors with no dark or black colors that you really care about (like old dark gardening pants that are faded anyway) and it's really dirty or stinky, choose "cool" or even "warm" for the soak.
CB, it’s so funny that you sent this because I was organizing our laundry area this morning and happened to find a container with my homemade detergent! Mine had Fels Naphtha (or Zote, whichever I could find, Borax and the washing powder. I found it worked well and did dissolve, plus I would add some drops of essential oils to the rinse cycle.
I stopped because I was having some skin problems and started using only Free & clear of whatever brand is on sale. I used to use a designated cheese grater for the soap. If I wasn’t so afraid of an allergic flareup, I’d make it again.
So I would say, stock up on those new little sheets of paper infused with detergent, since storing a lot of them won't take up much room.
This presupposes that we will still have water, electricity to run a washer, and heat sources to run a water heater.
If not, I guess we're going to be washing by hand with rainwater in a plastic kiddie pool, or in my neighborhood, hike downhill 1/2 mile to the creek and hope it is not too polluted by human feces after the water mains are shut down, then drag the wet wash 1/2 mile uphill.
Might be preferable to die for the cause by taking a glow bullist out with you.
“not having read carefully that you are concerned about shortages. Oops.”
Did I write that? I didn’t think I had any particular need in mind but I guess for a survival situation just having something available is good.
Also about cost.
I hadn’t heard of those laundry detergent sheets, pretty neat.
Way back when I bought this thing that looks like a plunger for use in an empty super pail, it has holes in it so when you plunge it up and down in water and detergent it’ll supposedly agitate whatever clothes you have underneath.
In lieu of trudging the neighborhood with wet laundry, I’ll try that first, lol.
“Soaking is economical”
Thank you for a great post, you covered a lot of bases.
Water, being a polar molecule, does great at removing stains and removing food from dishes even without any soap. But then you add soap in and it works even better.
I’ve been saving those lists of how to treat each kind of stain for years. But about 5 years ago I figured out something that works on just about everything. If I have a stain I flatten out the clothing item. Then I put some powdered OxiClean on top. And then I pour a little bit of liquid detergent and stir it around with my fingers until it somewhat dissolves. I let it sit anywhere from 15 minutes to hours, because it just depends when I get to that load.
It takes out everything I have found so far, even heavy Grease and that horrible red clay color that we have here. Works well for me because I only have to remember one thing to do and the two items are available at my washer. Probably not recommended on delicate material.
“I’ve read that modern machines are now designed to use less laundry detergent”
I didn’t know that. I have noticed the bottles recommend using a smaller amount, presumably it is more concentrated. But maybe it’s related to the new design of washers!
“how is this recipe healthier than store bought detergent?”
it probably isn’t. Although I guess when I was researching years ago people said it doesn’t have added perfumes or anything so it works for people that have sensitivities to those things.
I don’t know what kind of tips you’re looking for? I gave my OxiClean / detergent pretreating tip up above. #975
Great idea to try to use less laundry and dishwasher detergent. We probably don’t need near the amount they say. This last time I accidentally bought a dishwasher tablet doesn’t fit in my little holder, I’ve been just throwing it in the bottom of the machine. I’ll try cutting one in half and see how that works. Thanks!
“. I used to use a designated cheese grater for the soap.”
That’s a great idea, I’ll get that a try next time I make some. The whole microwave/paper plates/ crumble the soap is a pain. Takes a long time, and then the microwave smells funny
Yes, you can make it at home. No, you can not make it up ahead of time, (ask me how I know!).
Sadly hydrogen peroxide is something like bleach in that it degrades over time and is not easy to make at home.
That sounds great! Just to add my experience when I dropped olive oil on a solid-color cotton summer dress (you couldn't miss seeing the stain):
Liquid washing machine detergent did not work.
Liquid dishwashing detergent (Dawn) WORKED, and left no problems behind.
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