HomeMade Liquid Laundry Detergent

I often get strange looks from people when I tell them that I make our laundry detergent. It really is much easier than it sounds and it saves a TON of money! One of the added benefits is that you can really tailor it to your family's needs.  We have a top load washing machine. My recipe works just fine and I have had no problems with it. I have tweaked a few ingredients to meet our needs, but it works wonderfully.

 I have used three different types of soap:

 1. Fels Naptha-by far the best (it is an actual laundry bar) but hard to find. Buy it here for about $1.50 a bar plus shipping.

 2. Ivory-not my favorite
 3. Dial (orange bar) has done pretty well for me. I am on my third batch using it.

Let's get started and then I will give a rough calculation on how much it actually has costed me.

ITEMS YOU WILL NEED:
1 five gallon bucket with lid (a clean one of course)
1 bar soap of your choice
Borax

Washing Soda **I am a kitchen chemist and actually changed the chemical compound of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to sodium carbonate (washing soda) and it worked just fine. Now that I know I can find washing soda (sodium cabonate) in the pool section at Walmart, I will relinquish my title as "The Kitchen Chemist." :)**

Here is the recipe:

4 Cups - hot tap water

1 soap bar

1 Cup - Washing Soda

½ Cup Borax

 Step one: Grate your bar of soap.

Step two: Add about 1/2c of water and melt your soap down

Step three: .Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.(Chris' grand idea was to attach a paint mixer to the end of his drill and BAM! I didn't have to stir and stir and stir. Just a few shots of this and it is DONE.) :)

Step four: Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Just a fun idea: You can also add essential oil to your detergent. (I sometimes, SOMETIMES, do miss the smell of Gain). I really like lavender oil and have it most often. 10-15 drops of your favorite oil per 2 gallons.

Okay. So, we all know (well, those that know me well) that I am NOT a math person. I have been making detergent since roughly November of 2009. So eight months worth of detergent for a family of 5. I have only bought ingredients (borax and soda) TWICE. All, yes ALL,of the bar soap used was given to me. We bought two five gallon buckets (to make two batches at a time).

Two five gallon buckets $16
Borax x 2 7$
Baking Soda x 2 6$ (Remember: I am a "former" kitchen chemist and I had a recipe to change this over to sodium carbonate because I COULD NOT find washing soda.)
Soap FREE
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Approximate total $ 29.00 for EIGHT MONTHS worth of laundry detergent :) I still think that is stinkin' awesome!!!  Usually, I would spend about 13$ a month on laundry detergent. Over eight months that is $104.00!! That is an (approximate) savings of  $75.00!!!!! :) Now, that alone gets you thinking of making your own detergent-right? :)

Whether you prefer liquid or powder detergent, there are many recipes to suit your fancy. You can tweak mine to your needs or you can google-there is a ton of info out there!  It does take some getting used to. Sometimes mine would be a bit thicker, other times it is more liquid. But at any consistency, it has always worked really well for us!!! :)

Next stop: Homemade Dishwashing Detergent :)