Are you refering to the homemade laundry soap recipe?

Actually none of the so called new and improved solutions worked so I seeking "old school" methods to literally start from the beginning the reasons seeking old school are too numerous to list.

Mamapinky not wanting to make soap, just looking for a way to deep clean heavily soiled laundry not even Oxiy clean can manage

Oh ok...have you tried Tide?

Two old school elements missing from today's laundry: Really hot water and phosphates.

How to make lye soap personally I would prefer to buy it, but to each their own....

Try Persil or wash the clothes in hot water with oxiclean, tide, STPP and soak them overnight.

romanticlee - from an old, old cookbook: Advice on How to Wash Clothes

Build a fire in the back yard and set a kettle of rain water

Set tubs so smoke won't blow in eyes if wind is pert

Shave one whole cake lye soap in boiling water

Sort things: Make 3 piles: 1 pile white, 1 pile colored, 1 pile rags & britches

Stir flour in cold water til smooth then thin down with boiling water

Rub dirty spots on board then boil. Rub colored but don't boil; just rinse and starch.

Spread tee towels on grass; hang old rags on fence.

Pour rinse water in flower bed; scrub porch with soapy water; turn tubs upside down.

The recipe in this cookbook for laundry soap:

5 lbs fat or cracklings, 1 lb lye, 4 quarts water

Dissolve lye in cool water in a kettle. Add fat and stir. Leave 2 days. Stir several times each day. The 3rd morning heat and melt. Boil a short time until all rinds and cracklings are eaten up. Remove from fire and stir until thick. Leave in kettle and cut out in a few hours when cold. Another recipe calls for the same ingredients and ratio but also includes 4 tablespoons of borax.

There appears to be little difference between making the laundry soap or bar soap. Another recipe adds 1/2 cup ammonia to the mix but reduces the grease to only 2 quarts.

Let us know how your old-time laundry experience turns out.

I don't understand what could be so filthy that it cannot be done in a conventional washer with a heater and high quality laundry detergent.

I've mentioned before that I collect vintage French linens. I've had them arrive stinking -- literally -- from mildew. I bought an unused bed sheet that reeked of old shoe odor.

Within two wash cycles there was no trace of either in either instance. This was done in a FL with a sanitize 165F wash and Persil perls.

I mean, you can go become Pioneer Woman's neighbor but I think it sounds like a bore. Or you can find someone 95 years did laundry someplace rural because that's the only person who can answer the question.

Hey, my recipe called for a board not a rock, lol.

Moroseaz...LOL LOL LOL so funny.

Roc..were you thinking of me when you wrote. Pioneer Woman..lol.

I watch Little House on the Prairie where Caroline is washing those clothes in lye soap and scrubbing them with the washboard and I am so grateful for my washing machine and array of detergents. I might not have the fanciest machine on the market, but it does the job, my hands aren't scraped up and my back isn't out at the end of the day.

Romantic, I'm going to make this easier so you have some time left in your day

Get yourself a wringer washer, some phosphates, some old vinrage Lux Flakes, and a big ole soup pot.

Put the soup pot on to boil..bring it to a rolling boil, fill the wringer with HOT water than dump in your soup pot of boiling water, make sure that water is blistering HOT, than dump in, oh, about 1/2 cup of phosphates, and let it agitate 2 minutes, its very important that the phosphates be introduced to the water first to have time to bind up the hard water minerals when using soap, than add a healthy amount of Lux soap flakes and let agitate again, start adding your linen, you want to see a nice thick layer of creamy froth, so keep adding the soap until that's achived. Once you have a good 2 or 3 inches of froth allow the linen to agitate 30 or 40 minutes. Now you can stop agitation and start running the linen thru the wringers..empty machine and fill with HOT water again for rinsing, continue to empty and re rinse 3 or 4 times, hey soap scum is hard to remove...now you can hang everything on your fences or line. I can promiseyou spotless laundry that is fresh smelling and unbelieveably soft.

Or you can throw it in your TL'er add some store bought detergent, some HOT water and just a smigeon of Downy to the rinse and guess what beautifully clean and soft clothes.

Joking aside we need to know what your issues are in order to help you.

What could be so dirty? Clothes from an oilfield especially when they reek of oil or gas which the mftrs tell you expressly not to put in your washer or dryer. While I sympathize, I don't think making my own lye soap is going to resolve the issues.

Wasn't thinking of you @mamapinky. Was thinking of that woman who lives on the farm and does the commercial for Walmart.

This thread made me remember that my Grandma has one of those scrub boards even though she also had a washer/dryer. The scrub board would go into the soapy water side of the sink, clothes would get rubbed on it, then they would go to the other side of the sink with clear water. That had to be changed several times. Then she would hand wring it out.

Why anyone would want to spend time like that today, when you can get cleaner clothes in the machine, is another instance when I want to tell that person they have too much time on their hands and to please come here and help me because there is so much to do I don't have time in the day.

Why I'm outta here now. I have 3 loads on the laundry room floor.