Teach Soap

Hi all! I'm about to try homemade laundry soap (I did the 100% coconut oil with 0% superfat). I read that you should clean your washer out first before you start using the homemade laundry soap. What do you recommend..running a cycle with bleach? Or is that not necessary?

I use tide washing machine cleaner once a month. Gets rid of any residue

_________________
~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Thanks for the tip Hestey! I have the tide cleaner on my list

This is what I ended up doing: instead of using bleach, I used the laundry soap and put the setting to "Clean Washer" (never noticed this setting before ) and used hot water. After it was done, the inside of the washer had a white film all over it. I took a paper towel, spritzed it with white vinegar and wiped it out. Then I did a small load of towels with the laundry soap...they came out fine, no residue on them at all. The inside of the washer was clean too, except for the very very top, which had about a 1" ring of white film. As for the towels, I think they're clean? They felt clean anyway, lol....I hope they're clean!

If you have film later, I would use vinegar in the clean washer cycle. Vinegar would work way better at breaking down that residue and getting rid of both soap and mineral build up in the washer. I used cloth diapers, and when you wash cloth diapers in your washer you become hyper aware of any soap or mineral residue because even the tiniest bit causes issues (smelly diapers, repeling, rashes, etc). I used homemade laundry detergent until I started washing cloth diapers, and then I had to switch to classic Tide, it was the only thing that worked for me.