I used to make homemade cold-process soap with lard, and that was our laundry and dish soap. After the bars (chunks really) of soap were cured for a while they were grated up and very shortly this grated stuff broke down into what was nearly a powder. A tablespoon of this under a hot running tap made the sudsiest dishwater you ever saw and cleaned everything beautifully.

Watering down bar soap doesn't make any sense to me, since whatever you use is going to already be hugely diluted by the water you use it in. Powdered is the way to go.

www.thesage.com has a lye calculator that will tell you how much lye to use for the amount of lard you have, and give basic soapmaking instructions.

Kristin

We had an interesting thing with our septic tank recently. I've been buying anti-bacterial stuff because I thought it was better for us. Not so good for the septic tank. Plain old soap has bacteria in it that keep the tank "working". Also I used a Borax solution in the tank of our RV and nearly messed it up for good! Maybe we'd better stick to the shelf stuff for the time being.

Plain old soap doesn't contain bacteria, it just doesn't contain anything designed to kill bacteria. The main action of soap is to make your skin (or dishes) so slippery that water can wash bacteria away and down the drain. Antibacterial soap has the same action. Unfortunately it also contains chemicals that kill bacteria. They are of no benefit to peple washing their hands, because they have to be in contact with the bacteria for at least 3 minutes before they start killing them. I know of no one who washes their hands for 3 or more minutes.

Antibacterial soap is a problem for septic tanks and public sewage systems. It kills the bacteria that break down the solids in waste. It prevents the natural beneficial bacteria from doing their job. The antibacterial chemicals persist for months in the waste water and also in streams and underground water when waste water is released.

I am a big fan of soap nuts which we use mainly for washing clothes, but can be used for other washing as well. I'm also a proponent of castile soap mixed with some lemon juice and water for washing dishes. The Lemon cuts grease and the soap obviously cleans. Usually you can get a gallon for around $35 and it only takes 2 cups (mixed with 1/2 cup water and 1 tsp or so lemon juice) so it lasts a while.

For tougher cleaning I really like baking soda mixed with vinegar. Make sure you don't mix it prematurely, but only in/on the surface you want to clean as it has a sort of 'explosive' reaction. It works great in drains - our bathroom drain was super clogged and I put about a cup of baking soda down it, added about a cup of vinegar and plugged the drain for an hour. It worked great. The trick is to let the bubbles do the work of getting rid of the nastiness. This combo is also great in the bottom of your dishwasher left overnight or on the stovetop and then scrubbed. It's a really wonderful cleaner.

GOOD antibacterial soap only takes about 20 seconds to kill bacteria, but most people don't wash their hands for that long either. Antibacterial soaps are usually diluted enough not to kill large numbers of bacteria unless you are using them all the time or are in a setting such as healthcare, where hand-washing is performed hundreds of times daily. Septic bacteria can be replaced by periodically using Rid-X, Amway Septic Aid, or another of the numerous "Probiotics" designed for that purpose. I wouldn't recommend using antibacterials all the time unless you are in a "sensitive" environment, such as healthcare or commercial food preparation. They are convenient, though not necessary, to use when coming into the house after handling livestock or doing farm chores.

As far as homemade dish soap goes, you can find recipes on the "net" for making your own using a liquid fat (like coconut oil) instead of solid fat (like lard or tallow)in the saponification process, or you can mix liquid and solid fat for a different texture. I even have a friend who has developed a process for making "soap" without hydroxide, but she has been ripped off before with people taking her processes and commercializing them without her permission, so she says her special soap-making process will die with her. Borax is NOT considered safe for dishwashing due to high Boron content and washing soda would be really hard on the skin. Develop your own soap, use commerecial products, or soak a plain bar soap in a moderate amount of water to "liquify" it.

Good luck in your search, Cheryl. Thanks for bringing up the subject.

Don