Would you?

Would you add a cup that looked like this to the final rinse of your white load of laundry?

I did today.  And I'm pretty excited about it too!

It's bluing.  Mrs. Stewart's Liquid Bluing.  It's biodegradable and non-toxic, and I'm hoping it's the solution to my dingy whites.

About 2 months ago, we started using homemade laundry detergent (for cost reasons mainly.)  After much research, I decided to try this recipe:
1/4 bar Fels-Naptha soap
1/4 bar Ivory soap
2/3 c. washing soda
1/2 c. Borax
6 c. water, then an addition 4 c., then an additional 22 c.

At first, I thought it was leeching a LOT of color out of our clothes (like when I washed jeans, the water was DARK blue.  I had to seriously alter the way that I normally do laundry (four large loads every 10-14 days of dark delicate, dark dry, light delicate and light dry.)  With the homemade stuff, it seemed as though you had to sort very carefully so that colors didn't bleed/leech.  So I'd sworn off of using it.  Then I thought I should give it some more time.  I sorted more carefully (whites, lights, brights, darks, and dark and light delicates (which I wash in Woolite anyway.)  And in that time, I began to think that perhaps our clothes were getting clean.  It seemed like they were getting fairly clean at least.  Until the last few loads that came out feeling downright greasy. (Andy's work clothes and our bed sheets.)  Still don't know exactly what happened there.  The 2nd time I made it, I increased the soap to potentially combat the greasiness.  Used this recipe:

1/2 bar Fels-Naptha
1/2 bar Ivory soap
2/3 c. washing soda
1 c. Borax
Water, water water.

Now I think that maybe the Borax is too much (softens the water too much so that the soap isn't as effective- is there such a thing?)  So next time, I think I'll decrease the Borax.

Pretty much I have no idea what I'm doing.  I am truly a mad scientist.

But I did read that bluing would help make dingy white whiter.  And I found some when we were going through my great aunt's possessions yesterday.  So I decided to use it in my white load today.  It is currently in the dryer, but to me, the stuff that was saveable (namely things that had not gotten dingy over the course of 6 years of use like Ira's blanket or Andy's work socks - which are not six years old, but my are they grody!) does look nice and bright. 

I really would like to figure out this homemade laundry soap thing.  Because we stand to save a TON.  And it's all much better for your clothes and skin and the environment.  But I think there are a lot of variables (hard/soft water, what each ingredient does and how it interacts with the other ingredients, my affinity for packing the washing machine full and not sorting clothes all that carefully -dark dry, light dry, dark delicate, light delicate)  There are SO many variables that I just don't know much of anything about.  And I'm not having the greatest luck finding information on the internet about it.  There is a wealth of recipes for homemade laundry soap.  And there are tons of people saying how well it works and tons of people saying that it doesn't work at all.  But there's just not much about how it works.  Or troubleshooting advice.  So if you are in the know, SPEAK UP!

So I'm on the fence.  Our laundry doesn't smell bad when it's done washing.  It doesn't smell "clean" either.  It doesn't smell like anything at all really.  I just think our laundry could look cleaner.  I guess I will continue to dink with my recipe.  I'll use the bluing every once in awhile.  And I'll keep trolling the interwebs for solutions.