We really don’t need to do laundry the way conventional laundry product ads tell us to. We used to wash in soap (Marseille soap or core soap) and we can still wash in it today and even better than in the past because we have very powerful washing machines. In my opinion, laundry slime is better than just soap and it is very easy to make. If you have a small apartment, you can make only about 2 litres of it or if you have space, feel free to make 10 litres. The soap is also good for baby clothes, very delicate fabrics and properly soiled sweatpants from the woods or playground.

I got this recipe from my mother-in-law Lena who has been doing laundry like this for many years and I love it! It consists of only 2 ingredients that are both gentle on the skin and environmentally friendly (biodegradable). So how to make and use this miracle?

To make about 2 litres of laundry slime we will need:

• 110 g of Marseille soap (or core laundry soap) – you can buy soap made from olive oil or other vegetable fat and the only other ingredients are essential oil, water and e.g. sodium hydroxide, which is added to the fat to make soap by “saponification” so it reacts nicely and we don’t need to worry about it. It may or may not be listed on the packaging.
• 100 g of laundry soda (powdered or crystalline) – it is generally known to have a very wide range of uses, because of its properties: it removes odours, disinfects, dissolves grease, removes stains, softens water, etc. Soda is an essential non-toxic helper for cleaning and personal hygiene (toothpaste, shaving cream, etc.). (Laundry soda can be replaced by baking soda, I do swap them normally, however, laundry soda is simply better for washing :-). I use powdered soda, but you can also use crystalline, although you have to use more of that and I haven’t tried it. Baking soda is an irritant, so use gloves and maybe goggles so it doesn’t get in your eyes while you’re working it.
• A container of about 2 litres – a container with a lid is better so that the water doesn’t evaporate too much and dust doesn’t get on it. You can use a large jar with a lid, a bucket with a lid, or any glass container with a lid.

How to proceed:

1. If you buy a “cube” solid soap, you need to grate it coarsely. You can make this easier by buying good quality soap flakes.
2. Pour about 1 litre of boiling water into the prepared container.
3. Add the grated soap to the container of hot water and stir very carefully until completely dissolved (you can stir by hand, but a blender does a better job).
4. Add about 100 g of soda to the mixture of the hot water and grated dissolved soap, add hot water to the rim of the container and mix again very carefully (with a blender or by hand).
5. Let the well combined mixture cool and solidify for about 4-24 hours and you are done!

If the mixture doesn’t set (it doesn’t look like a gel/slime or has the consistency of cottage cheese), don’t worry. It is possible to do the laundry even with a wrong consistency. It also happened to me that the ingredients didn’t combine well, and I guess my poor mixing was to blame.

How to dose and wash?

If you wash at 30 °C, the slime will dissolve, but only if the washing machine is not overloaded. At 40 °C it dissolves perfectly and really washes out. Needless to say that if you wash at 60°C and above it washes perfectly.

The dosage depends on the size of the washing machine, frequency of washing, how dirty the laundry is etc. However, I have a 9 kg washing machine and I add the slime (about 100 g – 1 scoop and sometimes 2 scoops) straight into the drum. Lena puts the slime in a dispenser, so it’s up to you.

It’s really a quick preparation and once you try it, it’ll get easier. You know what you’re doing the laundry with and you know that the ingredients are really environmentally friendly and that it’s not greenwashing.

Price?

100 g of soap will cost you about 30–70 CZK (soaps are usually bigger – 250 g to 600 g). 100 g of washing soda will cost about 4–8 CZK. It is better to buy 1 kg of powdered soda, which you can then use for cleaning the bath, washing toys, making other products, etc.

So all together 2 litres of slime will cost you 35 CZK. One washing batch costs about 2–4 CZK.

GS tip: My mother-in-law Lena coats shirt collars or stains that would be a problem to wash properly without prior care with the slime before washing. I do the same with stains that occur when my daughter eats strawberries, watermelon, etc., as long as it’s a light coloured garment and the stain is dry, otherwise I don’t worry about it. If you want to make more than just 2 litres, just adjust the amount, e.g. 4 litres = 220 g soap and 200 g soda and so on.