Homemade Laundry Soap

****UPDATE AT BOTTOM****

I haven't tried this yet, but I'm looking forward to trying it very soon. It looks SO interesting....I'm always looking for ways to save money, and this looks like a GREAT way! : )

I'm having to wait because my usual grocery stores don't carry the ingredients...and I haven't been over to the farther stores for a while.

I do have another link, too...Homemade Laundry Soap .

Looking forward to reporting back on this experiment! : )

***I found TWO other links for this today, after I posted, so I'm adding those, also.

THREE INGREDIENT LAUNDRY DETERGENT

And from this article about the Duggers I happened across this recipe...I'm cutting and pasting because it's annoyingly hard to find in the article.

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Homemade liquid laundry soap

Ingredients:
4 cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 cup washing soda
½ cup Borax

Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.


Fill a five-gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.


Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (It will gel.)


Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per two gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons. Top-load machine: 5/8 cup per load (approximately 180 loads). Front-load machine: ¼ cup per load (approx. 640 loads).

Powdered laundry detergent

Ingredients:
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 cup washing soda
½ cup Borax

Grate soap or break into pieces and process in a food processor until powdered. Mix all ingredients. For light load, use one tablespoon. For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 tablespoons. Yields: three cups detergent (approximately 40 loads).
Inexpensive fabric softener recipes

Recipe No. 1: Add one cup white vinegar to rinse cycle. Works great. Removes residue and odors. Also helps to keep washing machine and hoses fresh and clean too.

Recipe No. 2:
1 container of name-brand fabric softener
4 inexpensive sponges, cut in half

Pour a whole container of softener into a five-gallon bucket. Fill empty softener container with water twice (two parts water to one part softener). Add sponges to softener/water mixture. When ready to use, wring out extra mixture from one sponge and add to the dryer as you would a dryer sheet.

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I liked that this one tells how to make powdered detergent...I don't remember the other ones doing that....or maybe I just missed them. Anyway, I can find it easier here. ; )

***edit***MY EXPERIENCE WITH HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT

I finally ran out of my laundry detergent, so it was time to try making my own. I started out by grating a bar of soap. And spent the rest of the night sneezing. It was DREADFUL!!! I didn't expect it to be so small and powdery when I grated it. When I make some up again I'll wear a dust mask and a pair of goggles (it got in my eyes, too, and burned like, well, soap).

I used a recipe that was on a local homeschooling group this past week to make it, one bar of soap, one cup of washing soda and 2 cups of borax. Now I notice that the recipe up there says 1/2 c. borax...so I wonder if what I made is *really* off, *but* I still ended up using 3 tablespoons per load instead of the 2 tablespoons, because 2 simply didn't seem to clean well enough. I liked adding a splash of vinegar to the rinse cycle, too, because it seemed to help it rinse out better. (My first load I missed the rinse cycle, and the clothes seemed a bit slimy.)

My DH came through the kitchen while I was grating soap and asked what I was making and when I said "Laundry soap." He said, "I will BUY you some detergent." I told him I am trying to be more frugal and he'd better stay out of the way. lol

Bottom line....I like it, with reservations. I'll have to see how long it lasts before I decide if I'll be using it forever or not. If it lasts like some people have said (6 months or so) I will probably keep using it.

****Update: I used the last of my Borax and Washing Soda the last week of April, so it lasted four months. Not the six I was hoping for, but still, four months without having to buy detergent was nice. : ) (Some *really* heavily dirty things it wouldn't clean well...I don't know if anything would have, though. Thinking specifically of a shirt my DH had ground-in clay mud on...that might not have come out even with an expensive detergent. Anyway, he has more shirts.) ; )