Homemade Laundry Detergent!

     In my quest to find more natural cleaning products I came across the Duggar Family laundry recipe.  I have been using this recipe now for about 3 years and I think that it works BETTER than my old orange bottled detergent, keeping the name to myself!    Since this recipe makes so much I find myself making it only about 3  times a year!  You can check out their recipe here.   

     When I decided to give this a try I went out and purchased the Felts Nap soap, a funnel and a grater that I could keep with the soap making stuff, and Joe picked up a 5 gallon bucket with a lid.  Wasn't that sweet?

 

Once you have your stuff gathered, you are ready to go!   

     First you need to grate the soap.  The reason that you grate it is because you are going to melt it on your stove top.  I do  have to admit that I never thought that I would be grating bars of soap!

Then you are going to take your mound of soap and put it into a sauce pan with water and boil it, stirring until all the soap is dissolved.  Don’t worry it only takes a few minutes.

Once all the soap is dissolved put it in the 5 gal bucket filled half way with hot water and stir.  Then you add your washing soda and borax and stir some more. Once all that is mixed, fill the bucket the rest of the way with water.  This is what it looks like,  very watery!

     So we wait!  And wait!  Did I mention, you wait! Yep, you need to let it cool so that it can all jive together.  Put a lid on it or wrap it with Saran Wrap and wait until morning.  I don’t have a picture of this, sorry.   However, it gels together kind of weirdly looking.  You will see.  You should stir it a bit.  Now, I have seen recipes where people have purchased a paint stirrer that attached onto a drill and they mix it up this way.  I don’t have one of those.  I use a very long handled Spaetzle tool.  It stirs up really easy.  I have also just used my hand!  I suck my hand down in the bucket spread out my fingers and mixed it up.  It is soap after all! 

       Now you have your very own detergent!  You can do what ever you want with it, like add essential oils. I  love Lavender!  You can also use Tea tree oil or really any scent you like!   It doesn’t smell bad without the oil so this is optional.  It has a light clean smell to it.

      The only thing I don’t like about this product is that it does clump back up.  I have seen many recipes where people fill those plastic water containers that you can slide into your fridge with the spout on them.  I wouldn’t want to have it gel back up in that.  When I knew that I wanted to try this out I started keeping my detergent bottles.  So now I just fill those up when I am finished.  Then before each use I give the bottle a little shake just to keep it all mixed up, not a big deal at all, especially when you realize how easy it is to make it and how much money you save by using it.

  By comparison I have found that it costs between .01 and .09 cents per load of homemade laundry soap and .25 and .35 cents per load of store bought brands!  We all like saving money, don’t we? 

I have also read other recipes where people have successfully used Ivory, or actual homemade bar soaps.  I did try it with Ivory and I have to say, it didn't turn out like this does.  I just stick with this one.

I hope that you enjoy making your laundry soap as much as I have!