Bar Laundry Soap
By Jenn (TinyChoices.com) | June 30, 2011
I recently returned from a meditation retreat, and since the ones I attend are 10 days long, it’s inevitable that somewhere in the middle of the course I’m going to be bent over a sink, washing clothes by hand.
When I hand-wash clothes at home, I usually just use a few drops of the machine laundry detergent I’ve got on hand, which is usually the liquid kind in plastic bottles (since I always wash in cold water, I find that the powdered detergent, while eco-friendlier, doesn’t dissolve/wash as well). It wouldn’t occur to me to purchase a special hand-washing soap, though when I was a kid and went off to summer camp, my friends and I all had a bottle of Woolite tucked into our trunks.
But here at the meditation center, I had a revelation- perched on the edge of the sink was a thick bar of laundry soap. Ahhh! This is the stuff sold in the laundry aisle of supermarkets, which I’ve never paid attention to in the least! It never occurred to me why anyone would purchase it, and it seemed incredibly old-fashioned, like something my immigrant grandma would have used with her wash board. And it probably is what she used- like many old-fashioned things, it’s also a greener choice than buying special bottles of detergent for this purpose. Bars of soap are not packaged in plastic bottles, have a much smaller shipping footprint since more of them fit into a carton and water-weight isn’t being trucked around. Plus, a bar of laundry soap is much less expensive than a bottle of Woolite.
So I used that laundry soap with glee, finally understanding what our grandmas knew all along. And if I ever decide I need to purchase soap dedicated to the purpose of hand-washing, I know which kind to get.
Is bar laundry soap a part of your household routine?
[Image by NHoulihan via Creative Commons]
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When I travel for work I like to go extra light. Which means washing in the hotel sink and hanging in the shower. I found that a regular bar of soap will do fine for most everything.
I’ll fill the sink with lukewarm water and wash my hands to get the water all soapy, Slop in a couple of pieces, pretend your a washing machine, wring it out and go for the next bits. Rinsing is basically the same, into the water swish it around ring it out. I’ll rinse everything twice, probably not even necessary, but I prefer less soap smell. Leaves less soap in the clothes than a typical washing machine.
Oh yeah, at the end of a hotel stay, pack the left over soap into my travel kit. It will either come in handy on the next stop, or become hand soap in the bathroom at home.
I’ve been able to use the same technique camping, substituting in a bar of soap I was bringing anyway.
When I was a Peace Corps volunteer, we all did our laundry with bars.
*IF* you have to do laundry by hand, bars are the way to go (but, I hadn’t know this UNITL Peace Corps). Beyond being better for env, I think it is just easier. Any handwashing I do, is with a bar of laundry soap.
Have you ever tried Soap Nuts? They can be used over and over again.
I grate bar laundry soap to use in my homemade laundry detergent
As a current PCV, I do nearly all my washing with a bar soap meant for everything. It works great! This is an especially good system for stains - they come right out. The one exception to bar soap, so the ladies in my town tell me in horrified tones if they catch me washing indiscriminately, is washing black clothes with bar soap. They insist that bar soap stays on black clothing just enough to dull the black, so I should use Tide or Omo for that. My blacks are all a little sun-dulled anyway, so I don’t really notice a difference, but maybe there is one? It might just be marketing.
While handwashing takes a little longer, I do love that I’m (a) reducing packaging, (b) reducing phosphates in the water supply, and (c) spending a little less money on chemical companies I don’t really want to support anyway. Yay for handwashing!
my gram used to use fels-naptha bar soaps. i cleans and leaves and great smelling scent. i just found some recently in a store called big lots. im going to shred some and try using it.
ive started doing that with my body soap instead of using shower gel. it dries out my skin too much. i bought some janus goat milk soap and my skin has been better than it has for years. all the additives the big companies put in their soaps always break me out, my kids too.
I’ve used laundry soaps before for handwashing and they work well. Another plus is if you are flying - it is not a liquid and you can cut off an appropriately sized piece to take with you. However, another option while on the road is to use shampoo to wash your clothes.
I am obsessed with packing light so I pretty much wash some clothes every day so I can pack less. This fills my mother with horror as she is a new-outfit-every-day kind of packer and pretty much refuses to handwash. And don’t even mention to her that I’ll wear the same pair of pants for an entire trip. I am slowly converting her to wearing shirts twice.
Toni, in fact, I’m Nuts For Soap Nuts!
We use a basic soap that is olive oil, salt and lye. you can use it for everything, yourself, your hair and your clothes. It doesn’t have a scent (neither of us like scented stuff), leaves your skin nice as it doesn’t have the harsher detergents, eco friendly and damn cheap.
Where oh where can I buy laundry/clothes soap?