laundry soap

i've started making my own laundry soap and have been more than pleased with it. i actually think it takes stains out of the kids clothes better than regular laundry detergent. i wanted to share the recipe with everyone, just in case you want to jump on the 'hippie ban wagon too' as my husband calls it, lol.

homemade laundry soap
grate bar soap. i use the small section of box cheese grater. doesn't it look pretty??

dissolve soap in water over medium low heat. the house starts to smell really good at this point =-)

once everything has dissolved you add water to a bucket, add the soap mixture, more water, stir and let set over night. abigayle helped me make my last batch and wanted to pose.

grate 1/3 bar Fels Naptha soap

1/2 cup borax

1/2 cup washing soda (NOT baking soda)

in a saucepan add 6 cups water and grated soap. heat until dissolved over medium low heat. once soap has melted, add borax and washing soda and heat until dissolved.

add 4 cups water to a 5 gallon bucket. pour in soap mixture and 1 gallon plus 6 cups water. stir, cover and let set for 24 hours.

use funnel to transfer soap to old laundry detergent jugs, milk or juice jugs. shake well and use 1/2 cup per load. can use this for HE machines or regular washing machines.

borax can be purchased at walmart or target. you can use any less fragrant bar soap like dove or ivory but fels naptha is recommended. fels naptha and washing soda can be purchased online or at ACE hardware. if your local ace hardware doesn't carry it in stock you can have them order it to the store without paying for shipping. i calculated out the costs using ace hardware prices and borax purchased at target and found a 5 gallon bucket of detergent (double the recipe above) costs $2.80 to make!! you can add fragrance to it if you'd like or just use fabric softener.

to make your own fabric softener sheets you can buy 1 bottle of your favorite liquid fabric softener and pour it into a bucket. fill the container with water 2 more times and add to bucket. cut sponges in half and float in liquid. squeeze out additional fabric softener and add to dryer. reuse sponges. i actually have mine in an old ice cream container since i don't have room for buckets.

if you have any questions, just ask. we love the savings and how nice it cleans!