I am afraid that the orange stuff has made the finish on your floor sticky....partially dissolved it. If it's the soda....just water will remove it.....remember...water dissolves sugar. Never any need to use soap of cleaner of any kind on a sugar spill....but when there is grease involved ( as with ice cream ) you need a detergent. Linda C

I have recently been using Fels Naptha as a pretreater for stains. Wet the stained area and rub the stain with a bar of Fels. Rub the resulting soapy stuff in well. Somtimes I use an old toothbrush to get it into the fabric well. Let it sit for 10 minutes before laundering. I find the "new" Fels Naptha has quite a strong perfume, so I keep the bar in a plastic container. As to it not being the same as grandmom's Fels, Stoddard Solvent is also called white spirit in other parts of the world. It is a type of naptha, which is a petroleum distillate. It's the naptha in Fels Naptha that makes it the most effective soap for removing greasy oily soils. Perhaps Dial is being more specific in naming the particular type of naptha being used in the formula. They have also highly scented the product. It no longer is "the soap with the clean naptha odor" touted in the old ads. I have used Zout for years, and loved the results. I recently ran out of my original formula Zout. It was very lightly scented. The Zout I replaced it with is still effective, but I object to the way it perfumes my clothes, hence the switch to Fels.

I have tried it all. I basically use this process. I have harder water. I ALWAYS prewash everything...in cold water, with a little liquid soap. It could be a couple squirts of dish soap, or I also use BioClean liquid laundry soap this way: I add some to an old dishwashing liquid soap bottle and fill with water. Then I squirt some of this into prewash. I use cold Prewash, to remove proteins. Once prewash is done, I then fill ' WHITES '...with hot water. I use then: homemade soap: ( depending on what I have at moment I make it )...either all borax...I use 2 boxes and put this in a container on dryer. I add one whole ounce of lemon essential oil. ( and stir very carefully so that it all mixes ..lemon also helps to remove oily stains ) Or, I use 1/2 washing soda and 1/2 borax. So one box to one box. I then still add one full ounce of lemon essential oil and stir. ( also can use lavender as this is a disinfectant ..but so is lemon ) From this, I use about 1/2 cup scoop for full load, or less if only several things and water level is set to low. For whites I use about 3/4 cup of Biz...and add that in too. I let the whole thing soak for an hour or more...depending on what I am doing. Then I set the washer to agitate. I get great whites, and stains are basically gone. For dirty things, like dish rags, etc...I usually buy only white..and I do use some bleach for this. But..one can also use hydrogen peroxide. I let the whole load of rags soak for 30 minutes to kill germs and then I start wash process. For darker things, I use same process of cold prewash. then, I either use warm or cold full wash, using only BioClean liquid soap, or you could use some other. For stains, I use biz. Or with in a warm wash, use the borax/washing soda..and let soak, for several hours. Depending on how dark the colors are, etc. I choose either biz/ or my own mix. One can also use oxyclean.. bu I usually don't use this, so I have little experience. Hope this adds some help to all ! Mernie

If you have trouble finding washing soda, check places that carry pool chemicals like hardware stores, DIY stores and the like. Washing soda is sodium carbonate and sodium carbonate is used in pools for water treatment. Just look for 100% sodium carbonate and you have washing soda, aka sodium carbonate, aka soda ash. It's ironic that people make dishwasher detergent while I buy it to use as a laundry additive! I buy the stuff for $1 a box with no lemon scent but has enzymes. Great laundry booster. Although I always keep borax around too. Many people add dishwasher detergent to their homemade laundry detergent for an enzyme boost/stain fighter. It does make a big difference in laundry from my experience. I used to use it all the time but now I'm using Tide so I don't need it very often. But occasionally I'll still soak something in it. I've also heard that it's great for soaking crusted pans to get them clean with less scrubbing. I haven't tried it but will. One word of caution, when you make things to be frugal, be sure to calculate out the true cost of it, including energy costs to make it, gas to go get special ingredients, etc then figure out the cost per use. I found that I couldn't make detergent for less than what it cost to buy it. But if you buy the ingredients in bulk and use a lot it can make a difference.