Laundry

I'm trying out a new laundry system.  First of all, I separate my clothes by color:

1.  Red, Orange, Purple
2.  Blue, Green
3.  Black, Gray
4.  White, off-white

I haven't figured out where yellow should go, but we don't wear much yellow, so it hasn't been a problem yet.  I do it this way so that I can wash everything in cold water, which saves on electricity.  I also try to run as many loads back-to-back as possible so that the drier stays warm between loads.  This also saves on electricity.  I do need to get one of those long lint brushes to stick through the lint vent.  I think there may be a back-up because it't taking more than one cycle to dry a load of clothes right now.  My long-term goal is to dry my clothes outside most of the year, but that will have to wait until we buy a house.  It's against our current lease to dry clothes outside.  Even though I see other people do it, I don't want to take my chances.

In an endeavor to use more environmentally-friendly cleaning products, I just made my first batch of homemade laundry detergent!  The first load using this recipe is in the washer now, so I'll have to give you my review later.  I was going to take pictures, but my husband is taking a nap and I can't take a picture of myself...

Homemade Laundry Detergent:
1/2 cup powdered Borax
1/2 cup powedered washing soda
1 cup grated Fels-Naptha soap

I was able to find all three of these ingredients at a combination of my local grocery stores.  Fels-Naptha was the hardest to find.  I recently found out that the local General Store also carries it, and it can also be ordered online.  I used the smallest grain on my box grater to grate the Fels-Naptha by hand.  One cup is approximately 1/2 a bar.  I use 1 tbsp. of this powdered detergent per load.  You can increase this to 2 tbsp. if you have an especially dirty load.

I've almost finished using up all of the liquid fabric softener I bought quite a while back.  I switched to liquid softener because I thought it was such a waste to use the drier sheets and throw them away.  I could never figure out another use for them.  After the liquid softener is gone, I plan to switch to plain old white vinegar in its place.

Have you tried any homemade laundry detergents?