Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Homemade Laundry Soap

Today I made my own laundry soap. I've been toying with this idea for a while, but I was put off by the recipes for liquid soap, and the vision of a 5-gallon bucket of it in my laundry room.

Instead, I made a powder soap. Here are the 3 ingredients you need. All three of these are sold at our local WalMart.
Be sure to get "washing soda" and NOT baking soda. Evidently there's a pool product that's the same as washing soda, so you could check into that, if you like.

My recipe:
1 bar Fels Naptha soap (it's about 5 oz.)
1 cup washing soda
1 cup Borox

Grate the bar of soap. This is the only tedious part. I should have grated it on a finer setting, but, um, I'm a wee bit lazy.
Looks suspiciously like cheese. I like the color and the aroma.
Add the two powders, and stir well. I think it would have mixed better if I'd grated it more fine.
So this is the final product. I'll have to tell the kids to stir it well each time, to get all 3 ingredients in each load
The good news? This stuff is such a savings! Everything I've read says it costs about 2¢ per load. Normal detergent costs about 20¢ per load. That's a hefty savings, over time, and we do a lot of laundry. I also like that it's more natural, without some of the extra chemicals added to most ingredients for texture/color/aroma, etc. I may also end up using my own homemade soap, after I make some more.

5 comments:

Gumbo Lily said...

I made a batch of this homemade laundry soap this winter and really liked it! My dd made some too and she's using it on everything, including the baby's clothes. Good stuff! And cheap washing.

Carolyn said...

I've looked everywhere, unsuccessfully, for washing soda. Let me know if you like the way the homemade soap cleans spots out of your clothes.

Max said...

MK,

Seems like this recipe would only make 3 or 4 cups. How many loads would it do? Even if Fels Naptha soap only cost a dollar, it would have to be enough for 50 loads even if the other stuff were free.Can you share the numbers with me? Max

M.K. said...

Max (and others) -- I should have said that you only put 1 tablespoon in each load, 2 if it is a dirty load. This makes it last a long time.If it makes 5 cups, then that would be 60 loads, about.

Jeannette said...

Carolyn, I got washing soda on Amazon. I get everything on Amazon, never have to go to Target again. LOL.

I use a bar of peppermint castile soap in my laundry soap. Smells so fresh. :D I like liquid detergent, and what I make fills a leftover container of laundry detergent, the large kind with a spout. Then if there's overflow, I just put in an empty gallon jug. So, not too overwhelming.