Any Math People Out There?

[KayakGirl]

I need some math help please. I make my own laundry detergent by the gallon and want to carry just the "base" and add to the washing machine as needed.
The proportions are: 3 tablespoons Borax, 3 tablespoons Washing Soda (Arm & Hammer), and 3 tablespoons Dawn Ultra (the blue one
The "recipe" calls for 1 gallon of water with the above ingredients; how much of the ingredients minus the gallon of water would be needed to make 1 cup of the detergent? I am trying to get around carrying a whole gallon of premixed detergent and would like to be able to just measure out the amount of the base ingredients needed to do one load......one load needing 1 c of detergent.

 

[Oberneldon]

4 cups (8 oz ea cup) in a qt. (32 oz) - 16 cups (4 qt) in a gal (128 oz) so your ingredients are divided by 16 to get the amount per cup of water. Best to mix your ingredients together in a gallon batch and try to figure out how you measure out 1/16 at a time. Not an easy task.

 

[Stargazer]

There are 16 cups in a gallon of liquid.
There are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon so each ingredient is 9 teaspoons (to make a gallon).
Divide 9 teaspoons by 16 cups.
One cup of liquid would require .56 teaspoons of each ingredient or barely over a half teaspoon.

This is assuming you do not premix the three ingredients. If you do premix, then each cup of liquid would take just over 1.5 teaspoons of the already mixed ingredients.

Good luck! And if anybody sees an error here, jump right in

 

[KayakGirl]

Thank you Stargazer, much appreciated! This will keep things a little bit simpler and take up a lot less room. Shoot, I can even make up enough "base" for three or four gallons and still be ahead of the weight and room game.

 

[HarmonicaBruce]

Make your soap, but instead of using one gallon of water, use enough water to make one pint of soap. In other words, put all the ingredients in a 1 pint jar except water. Then add enough water to fill the jar.

Then instead of using one cup of detergent, use 1/8 of a cup, which is 2 tablespoons.

I graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan with a BS in math.

 

[Almost There]

Now that you've got the math handled I have another suggestion. I pack small quantities of powdered 'anything' in the teensy ziplocks you can buy in the craft section of a dollar store.

IIWM I'd mix up the basic recipe you gave us then weigh it on a scale, divide by 16 then pack up the ziplocks. You can always store the 16 ziplocks in a larger one to keep them together. On laundry day, take enough of the tiny packs for the number of loads of wash you have, mix each in a cup of water to make liquid detergent and voila, you don't have to keep figuring out the math each time.

 

[KayakGirl]

Lots of great suggestions, thank you. Will be trying all of these before I decide on which to stick with. Hope some of you try the soap recipe; it leaves no detergent smell, just a nice fresh clean smell. I went this route as commercial detergents were giving my sinuses fits. Really dirty clothes will take the commerical stuff to get clean or a laundry booster, but most of the time anyone's laundry basically just needs mild cleaning and freshening. It's dirt cheap, too, pardon the pun.