Homemade Laundry Detergent

With today's economy and the insane price of laundry detergent it does not hurt to learn a few tricks on how to save a few bucks.

This is very good soap if you have sensitive skin.

The Cast of Characters

• 1 bar of soap (all I had today was Dove, but a soap without moisturizer will actually work best and will be even less expensive)*


• Borax (you can get this at the grocery store or at Walmart, I paid like $3 for the box)


• Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (again, grocery store or walmart, paid like $3 for the box, you can also use regular baking soda but must be careful when combining it with the borax, you need to do it very slowly or it will react and spill out of your pan and leave your stove super super clean and shiny).


• Water

So overall I have spent like $7 and will have enough supplies to make this recipe for well over a year (depending how much laundry you do).

THE STEPS

Grate the soap ( if you are lazy like me you can just stick it in a bag and pound it with the hammer).

In a large pot add 6 cups of water and turn the heat on to low,

Add the grated (pounded) soap to the water and let the soap dissolve. This could take a while, no need to sit and watch, just let it be and come check on it every once in a while to see if the soap has completely dissolved in the water. Do not heat on high because the water will boil.

When the soap has dissolved measure 3/4 cup of Borax and add it to the pot. Then measure 3/4 cup of the Arm & Hammer and add it to the pot. Mix the ingredients around and wait for them to dissolve, this process is pretty quick as you are mixing powders this time. You can already start to feel the mixture thicken a little.

Now get a large bucket. If you have one of those 5 gallon buckets with a lid it would be perfect. Perhaps an older detergent bucket from Costco. If not, just get something like this and add 4 cups of hot water to the bucket. No need to heat the water up, just use tap water but make sure its as hot as you can get it.

Then add the contents of the pot to the water in the bucket and stir.

Now add 1.5 gallons (24 cups) of tap water to the bucket and stir.

At this point if you want to add any essential oils to the detergent then go for it, perhaps you want a lavender scent or whatever floats your boat. I could care less about what my clothes smell like so I am skiping this step.

If you added your contents to a 5 gallon bucket with a lid as I suggested then you are done. Just cover the bucket and let it sit overnight.

If you dont have such a bucket or perhaps are still doing your laundry outside of your home and do not want to haul a 5 gallon bucket around with you, then do as I did and empty out the contents of the bucket into individual containers. I had some juice containers I washed out and then poured the contents into them. It took 5 containers total.

If doing this it would be easier to funnel the contents into the container, if you dont have a funnel then just an old milk jug and use that.

Let it sit over night.

BEFORE USING

You can check on your detergent the next day, expect separation and make sure to shake well before using.

You will need to use an average of 1/2 cup per wash load.

*if you are making soap for a baby you will need to use a bar of castile soap. The baby's skin is really sensitive to regular soaps.