Homemade Laundry Detergent

Since I was replenishing my supply today, I thought I'd go ahead and take pics and share how wonderful this is! It took my daughter a while to convince me that this was worth doing, but after trying hers, then doing it myself, I was hooked!! Once you get what you need...it's easy! And it saves a TON of money.

So here we go. The utensils you need are: a very large container, preferably with a lid (we use a cleaned out chlorine bucket), a 2 quart or larger saucepan, measuring cups, grating utensil and stirring utensils (notice my very large wooden spoon from Africa! Works perfect!)


There are only 3 ingredients:
1 bar soap, your choice
1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax

 

In a large saucepan, boil 3 cups of water. While water is coming to boil, grate a bar of soap. Add to gently boiling water and melt completely (be patient and stir!!) In a large bucket, pour in 4 gallons of hot tap water Dissolve the Borax and washing soda in this. Stir for about 5 minutes. Add the soapy water. Let the mixture cool overnight. It will be very clumpy and kind of gross looking - but works great! I fill an empty laundry soap container to keep in my laundry room and store the remainder in the bucket with the lid on. You could pour all of it into empty containers if you have them. Use 1 cup per average load. I always shake the bottle before pouring. The kind of soap you use will add fragrance or some color. I use unscented sensitive skin Dove. Here's the finished product as it's cooling.

 Enjoy!!