Homemade Laundry Soap

So, I thought I might try my hand at the "eco-friendly" soap. Here is the recipe I used. The stuff smells really "clean."  Now, I will let it sit overnight and will try in the morning, I will let you know what I think! This is what you need.....Some kind of bucket to mix all your ingredients in. I used a 2 gallon paint bucket.
1/3 bar of Fels Naptha Laundry Soap
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda



Step 1: Cut your bar of Fels Naptha Soap into thirds and finely grate one third of it.

Save the other two thirds 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.

Give it another few 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, the type of soap you used, and how much of a tree-hugging hippy you are. 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 a Beverage Dispenser 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 immersion blender 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.


I found this cute plastic cup at a thrift store and it holds exactly 1/2 cup. Perfect!



An adhesive plastic hook gave me a cute litle laundy soap set-up. Oops, I attached it to the wrong side. Easily fixable. But wait! There's more!



If you have a Downy ball, you can put about 1/2 cup of Distilled White Vinegar in there and it makes a fantastic fabric softener. And no, your clothes do not come out smelling like vinegar. If you don't have a Downy ball just add your 1/2 cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle. I don't like babysitting my washing machine so I have a Downy ball.





Got this recipe from frugallygreen.blogspot.com