Homemade Laundry Detergent!

It has been quiet around here lately, but of course that's because I have been completely consumed making laundry detergent.....ok so that may not be exactly true.  Actually, not nearly close to true as it only takes a mere 15 minutes from start to finish to make a ginormous amount....5 gallons to be exact!!!!  When I was coming up with ideas on how we can be more frugal with our money I was looking at different avenues where we could cut.  It was there that I learned how much over the course of a year we spend on laundry detergent and how it is so simple to make on our own.  After you have your start-up materials that costs say around $10 it only costs $0.98 for your next batch! 

We just ran out after a year and two months of using our first batch!  We do about 3-4 loads a week so you can do the math for savings and how much this stretches!  For something that costs around $11 for the first batch and only $0.98 for our second batch and will last us another year and two months NOTHING can beat it! We know exactly what is in it and it's all natural ingredients.  For someone who are sensitive to different skin irritants, this is perfect as it's hypoallergenic.  This can even be used for heavy soiled cloth diapers and on sensitive clothing so it's versatile.  The best thing is there really is no way you can totally screw it up, seriously!  I was skeptical at first but after an incident with chocolate milk all over a white shirt a quick run through the washer had it come out spotlessly clean....I was SOLD!

Want to know my secret recipe?!?!  Well there are about a bazillion (yes that's a specific amount) recipes floating on the Internet.  Some are dry and others are liquids. We personally prefer liquid soap.  After reading reviews and countless recipes, we went with a simple liquid formula.

All you need:
- 5 gallon paint bucket with lid --- bought ours at Walmart for $2
- Super Washing Soda $4-5 and found at Walmart (in the laundry section) and Aces Hardware
                   (NEEDS TO BE WASHING SODA - NOT BAKING SODA!!!!)
- Borax - $4-5 in the laundry section
- Fels-Naptha - A whopping $0.98 also living in the laundry section (Some use Ivory soap instead)
- OPTIONAL - Essential Oils (I like the smell of the detergent which takes on the Fels-Naptha smell so we don't use extra essential oils.  Clothes come out of the washer/dryer smelling like nothing.  Sounds weird, but it's true.  The clothes take on a smell of just clean....real clean not blossoming flowers, an apple orchard, or orange mulberry bush whatever!  I've never used essential oils before so, to be honest, I'm just staying clear of them for now and figure the clean smell of fresh is good for me!)

What's great this time is all we had to do was buy a new Fels-Naptha bar for $0.98 for a batch that will last a bit over a year!  A years worth of laundry detergent for $0.98, I'll take that for savings!!!!

So you start off with getting your materials together and having your paint bucket ready to go!

Using a cheese grater, you need to grate the entire bar of

Fels-Naptha soap into a large pot

It will look like this....don't be fooled, it's not Cheddar Cheese so no eating please!

Then put in about 4 cups of water and begin to boil on medium-high

 

In the meantime, as that's coming to a boil, fill up half way the paint bucket with hot water.  My super smart husband this time remembered to use our hose sprayer from our sink which made it so easy.  Last time we dumped in cups of hot water...for some reason we always forget we have a sprayer!

 

Then goes in 1/2 cup of Borax

1 whole cup of Super Washing Soda

Then you're just waiting for the rest of the soap to dissolve into the water.

Once it is all dissolved pour it into the bucket

Stir, stir, stir!

Then top off with more water all the way to the top.

Stir one last time (all the bubbles will disappear don't worry!)

Then put the lid on and let it sit overnight!

The next day find a child that you can put to work illegally through child labor.  Have said child laborer stir the congealed laundry detergent.  At first it will be almost jelly like but after stirring it will soften and be ready to go! 

 

We leave ours in the bucket and keep the bucket by our washer machine.  If you have a used laundry detergent bottle you can pour some in there and use it that way.  We just dip our measuring cup into the bucket to scoop out ours.  For a normal old-school top loading washer you will need to use 1/2 cup for a load.  If you have a new front loading HE washer all you need is a 1/4 cup scoop. 

 

 

For super dirty jobs we will pour in an extra scoop full of detergent and at times Oxi Clean, because I swear by anything Billy May's put out!