Monday, May 23, 2011

Homemade Laundry Soap

A couple of weeks ago, my sister came over and we made homemade laundry detergent together.  It was something our mom did, and something we both had wanted to do for a long time.
There were several reasons, cost being the biggest one for me.  It is waaaaaay cheaper to make your own laundry detergent!  If I was amazingly organized, I would have all the figures right here so I could blow you away with how much money we're saving.  But I don't have the figures, so you'll just have to believe me. :)  All the ingredients we used for two recipes cost less than you would pay for one medium sized container of detergent, and we both have enough to fill at least three such containers.  
It's so exciting to find relatively simple ways to save money every day!  It's such a blessing to be able to be at home enough to do things like this!  


Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

2 cups grated soap (we used Ivory, but any gentle soap should work)
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda (not baking soda)
1 quart of boiling water
2 gallons of water


*Add grated soap to the boiling water and stir until the soap is melted.  (You can keep it on low heat until the soap is melted.) ~I just used a kettle to boil the water, and stirred it until it was melted.

*Pour the soap water into a large, clean pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda.  Stir well until all is dissolved.

*Add the 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed.

*Cover pail and use 1/4 cups for each load of laundry.  Stir the soap each time you use it.  ~I poured mine into an empty laundry detergent container, and just give it a good shake before I do laundry.

4 comments:

  1. Where do you buy the Borax and washing soda? This is such a neat idea. How is it for getting grease stains out?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I got the Borax at Superstore and I think the washing soda came from Safeway. So they're pretty accessible!
    I haven't tried getting grease stains out myself, but one review I read said it works really well for it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is it possible to 'scent' the laundry soap? A friend of mine just started the company (here in Canada) Bubba Goo laundry soap, mostly because she could never get the stink out of cloth diapers. Apparently the scents are amazing... I'd love to make my own detergent, and have fabulous scents! -Jillian

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes you can definitely scent your soap! I didn't mention that because we didn't with the batch we made, but you can put 10-15 drops of essential oil in, and it's supposed to work beautifully!

    ReplyDelete