My good friend Emily responded to my Living on the Cheap blog with a recipe for laundry soap that she says needs only two tablespoons per load. Cheap, yes—plus the fun of making it. Maybe a home-school project?
First, hunt for Fels Naptha soap—a household staple when I was a kid. Best-Price.com sells 6 bars for $8.50. You’ll need at least 4 per batch. THEN—and here’s the fun part—pull out your vegetable grater and turn the bars into twelve, packed-down cups of fine shavings. A tip: Watch TV while grating. Painless.
When you finish, dump the shavings in a LARGE container, along with 6 cups of Borax (look online for that, too) and 6 cups of whatever store-bought laundry powder. Stir together, and voila! Five months’ worth of laundry soap that cleans your clothes with only 2 tablespoons per load! Cheap AND tons of satisfaction!
Which brings to mind a different sort of laundry soap. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18) Imagine that! Sin Soap! Trouble is, we don’t believe we need it. We shower, deodorize, stay on the good side of the law. But under God’s ultraviolet light, our impurities and imperfections become glaringly fluorescent. We desperately need God’s cleansing power through the blood of our Lord Jesus. “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ . . . cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” (Hebrews 9:14)
Jesus himself ran the quintessential soap commercial at his transfiguration. “His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.” (Mark 9:3) Imagine standing alongside the disciples on that mountain. Imagine the sheer terror of experiencing the staggering glory of God’s presence!
Get used to that, friends. If we are in Christ, that’s our forever future—but the cost for Jesus was not cheap.
Lord, I make lots of dirty laundry, and Emily’s Naptha mix can address that, but I need your deep, deep cleanser for my soul. “Wash me, Lord; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:7)