Homemade Laundry Detergent

Basically, homemade laundry soap costs less than 1 cent per load. "Laundry Soap" cleans better than bath soap. I have a "regular" washer, but this homemade IS safe (and especially good) for HE washers, because it makes little to no suds. In fact, the suds actually have nothing to do with cleaning power...they're just added effect in store bought detergents.

Here's what you need:

• Some kind of bucket to mix all your ingredients in. I used a 5 gallon paint bucket.
• 1/3 bar of Fels Naptha Laundry Soap (you can also use Zote, Octagon, or Ivory--amounts may vary)
• 1/2 cup Borax
• 1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda...NOTTTTTT baking soda...Washing Soda!! (everything but the bucket can be found in the laundry aisle of Walmart, Publix, etc...)

Step 1: Cut your bar of Fels Naptha Soap into thirds and finely grate one third of it. Save the other two thirds (ziploc bag) because next time you make a batch of laundry soap it will feel like you are doing it for FREE!

Step 2: Put your grated soap in a pot with 6 cups of water and heat on low until the soap melts. Don't let the soap boil. Once all the soap is completely melted add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Continue stirring until the mixture thickens (almost as thick as honey) remove from heat.

Step 3: Pour 4 cups of hot tap water into your bucket. Add the soap mixture and stir it up. At this point you could add a few drops of essential oil like lavender or tea tree oil if you wanted your soap to have a fragrance. Add nothing and your clothes will simply smell "clean".

Now add one gallon of hot tap water plus 6 more cups. I used a 5 gallon bucket because the mixture ends up being about two gallons, so you don't want a bucket so small that it sloshes while you're mixing it.

Give it a few more minutes of stirring and then let it sit overnight.

Step: 4 In the morning your soap might look runny, or like gel, or separated with big clumps of slime on top and water on the bottom. This is all normal depending on the weather, and they type of soap you used. At this point you can be done and simply keep your laundry soap in the bucket and just scoop out 1/2 cup per load. Or you can give it another good stir and funnel it into your old well rinsed laundry soap bottle. OR you can be a sucker for cute packaging like me and take it one step further.

Step 5: I wanted to use an old Tide bottle (the big one with a spigot) but my soap came out all clumpy and I knew there was no way it would flow through. So I busted out my hand mixer and smoothed all the clumps layer by layer. I funneled each layer into my container then went back and blended the next part. Blend, funnel, blend, funnel, blend, funnel...etc

***If you don't have an old detergent container, you could also buy one of those refridgerator water containers (with a spigot) at Wal-Mart for like $6 if you didn't want to leave it in the bucket (I didn't since I have a small child).***

FYI: If you do have an old Tide container (100oz size with spigot), the little cup that comes with them holds exactly 1/2 cup.