There are likely a hundred recipes on the internet for laundry soap. This is the one that we've found works the best, and we've been using it for almost three years.
All in all, you end up saving about 85% on laundry soap for however long you decide to do it. It takes about 15 minutes, will last about 64 loads (or 128 loads if you have a High Efficiency washer), and the ingredients will last for about a year or more. It does a great job for normal laundry. If you have a load of extra soiled laundry, you might want to add a scoop of OxyClean or use your leftover regular stuff.
All of the ingredients are found in the laundry aisle. Look high and low for them. They are there. If you happen to use a small store that might not have everything like Walmart, you can try asking a manager to order it for you. It's worth it. Trust me.
Ingredients/Supplies:
1 bar of Fels Naptha - a really strong bar soap for laundry (you will use one 3rd of this per batch) **You can buy a different type of soap, but you might need to use the whole bar in that case**
1 box of Washing Soda - We bought Arm & Hammer
1 box of Borax - We bought 20 Mule
A two gallon bucket (with or without a lid. We covered ours with a towel)
A whole bunch of tap water
Directions:
Use a cheese grater to shred 1/3 of the Bar of soap (you may need to use the whole bar if you bought something other than Fels Naptha)
Bring 6 cups of water to a high temp (doesn't matter if it's boiling or not) with the soap in it. (You can add the soap before or after it boils)
Keep stirring until all of the soap melts
Add 1/2 cup Borax and a 1/2 cup of Washing Soda and stir until it dissolves
Put 4 cups of warm-hot water into the bucket (we let the 4 cups boil in another pot while we were messing with the rest of the soap mixture)
Stir in soap mixture
Add 1 gallon and 6 cups of warm-hot water to the bucket and stir
Let it sit for 24 hours to gel
The end product will be a mixture of solid gel and water (similar to the texture of egg noodle soup)
This batch will last about 64 loads. If you want to add fragrance, you do that when you're boiling all of it.
Use a 1/2 cup of laundry soap per load. If you have an HE washer, use 1/4 cup per load.
We bought/found a pot, spoon, cup, and cheese grater that we will only use for this. I think that as long as you wash it with dish soap it will be fine, but we did that just in case. We also poured half our mixture into an old All container for easier use. Since it didn't all fit, we just left the rest in the bucket and covered it with a towel.
I'd say try it. Even if you decide that you don't like using the laundry soap or whatever, the ingredients individually are great for cleaning laundry, the kitchen, and the bathroom. They are also all natural, so you can feel like your being green at the same time!
I also know of a dry homemade laundry soap recipe, but you're just going to have to wait for that one!
Is washing soda different than baking soda? I currently use baking soda in my wash already. Can I continue to use it with this recipe or do I need to buy actual washing soda?
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea for a blog! Good job, Stacy!
There is a difference between baking soda and washing soda. Definitely do the *washing* soda!
ReplyDeleteI had a reader ask me about how long the supplies will last. Hopefully my response will help others looking to do this:
ReplyDeleteYour first trip to the grocery store will cost about $8 or so. Roughly the cost of 2 comparable sized detergents. You'll get three batches out of the bar of fels naptha, but it will take a loooooong time to go through the boxes of borax and washing soda. You're only using a half a cup per batch, so with a 76 oz box of borax, you're getting 19 batches from that one box. We've used the borax for other household cleaning, so we've gone through it a bit quicker. All of the alternative uses for around the home are mentioned on each box, respectively.
Thanks to Rachel Z. for the question!