My Favorite Homemade Laundry Soap

 

I have been making homemade laundry soap for over 4 years now.  I should sit down and figure out how much I have saved over that time (I'm sure I would amaze even myself)!  When I started making it, it was on a "need to" basis to save money.  My husband had lost his job, and I was trying to save money everywhere I could.  My motto is, "Saving money on dumb stuff, so I can spend it on FUN stuff!"  My oldest child had suffered with eczema and the only detergent I could use was Tide.  I loved it, and loved the smell, but it was expensive.  I average 15+ loads of laundry a week so the soap goes fast!  I didn't know how this would affect Kaden, but I figured if I needed to, I would wash his clothes separate in tide.   I started out making liquid soap 5 gallons at a time for $7-$8.  (I will do a post on this later, I really like this for my darks).  I loved the soap, and it worked really well.  The one thing I really missed was the smell.  My favorite smell is "clean laundry" and it was missing that.  So I started adding part of a bottle of liquid tide to add the scent.  Then I started adding a scoop of oxi clean, and downy unstoppables to each load.  When my kids or hubby would do a load of laundry, they weren't as good at remembering to add all the extras.  So, I decided to try it out in a powder form and have it all in one mix.  (Wow that was a very long explanation on how my soap recipe came about!)

 
One of the hardest parts of using this soap is getting used to using such a small amount, and not having suds. 

 For a Small load use 1 TBLS, Medium 1 1/2 TBLS and Large (my only size) 2 TBLS.  

This is the same for a regular or HE. 

This recipe will do 350 large loads of laundry......for me that lasts 6 months! 

 When I first started making this, I would have to shop 3 different stores to find all of my ingredients, now I can find everything at Wal Mart (and almost every other store I've checked) in the laundry section.  

1 (4 lb 12 oz) box borax

1 (3 lb 7 oz) box arm and hammer WASHING soda

1 (4 lb) box baking soda

2 bars of fels naptha soap finely grated (I use my salad shooter)

1 1/2 lbs of oxi clean -1/2 of this tub (I tried a generic this time and it's working great)

1 (13.2 oz) bottle of downy unstopables (or another similar type of product)

{The Oxi and the unstoppables are the most expensive items and are completely optional}

The first time I made laundry soap I hand grated my fels naptha (which is orange by the way) onto a plate.  I turned to get something and looked back just as my then 4 year old grabbed some soap and put it in his mouth - it looks just like grated cheddar cheese!  I wish I'd had a camera!  I have since gotten a lot smarter and use my salad shooter to grate my soap.  I usually grate 10 bars at a time so I don't have to wash the salad shooter every time.  I just grate each bar into it's own ziplock bag and store it in my laundry room so it's ready for the next batch. 

You will need a large bucket to mix everything together in. 

Pour the Borax and Washing Soda into the bucket

Because you use such a small amount of soap, I found that some loads got more fels naptha & unstoppables than other loads because they weren't as evenly distributed as the powders.  So to fix this, I put a couple cups of baking soda in my blender (you could use a food processor too) and then added one bar of my grated fels naptha.  I just let it run long enough to break the soap up a little more.

  Dump this in your bucket and repeat with your other bar of soap.  I also did this with the unstoppables, I did about 1/4 of a bottle at a time.  Because of the heat the friction causes and the fact that the soap and unstoppables are a little softer, they will jam up in the bottom of the blender or food processor.  You don't need to get them as fine as the other ingredients, I just find it helps to break them up some.  

All Ingredients should now be in your bucket. 

 Stir Stir Stir....Your house will smell like clean laundry heaven!

After seeing me make laundry soap in the blender, my 17 year old posted on his instagram "My mom's making laundry soap in the same blender I make my protein shakes in.......If I start burping bubbles, someone please shoot me!"

This recipe will make just over 2 gallons of powder.  I store one gallon in a glass jar - $10 at Wal Mart (it used to have a glass lid.....a cement floor and glass don't mix well)  The other half goes in a gallon pitcher in my cupboard. There's always a little left that I usually put in a pint jar, add a little vinyl and pass onto a friend.  I use the scoop that comes in the "Sun oxygen cleaner" to measure my soap out.  It is a 2 TBLS scoop and works perfect for my large loads. 

Start to finish this usually takes me 1 hour to make and be cleaned up.....well worth my time.

Since this usually describes my house.......

This laundry soap helps keep it clean without breaking the bank!

{If you decide you don't want to use homemade laundry soap, I would recommend at least keeping the main ingredients (borax, washing soda and fels naptha) on hand to use in your storage}