Homemade Laundry Detergent!

Today has been a VERY productive day! I woke up this morning (at 10:30.. that's not the productive part) and went to run errands with Maegan and my mom. We ran to Walmart to get stuff to make our own Laundry Detergent (and for the dishwasher detergent click here!!). We got the idea from Being Creative to Keep My Sanity. She has instructions but I also took pictures of the process, so if you want to go over there and check it out that's great, but I will also post the instructions, with pictures!

How long does a container of $10 laundry soap last? It seems to disappear SO fast! With this homemade soap, a little goes a LONG way! You only use 1 tablespoon per load, it costs $20 to make and it lasts about 9 {NINE} MONTHS!!! Talk about saving money!

So here is what you need!

 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (1.81 kg) found in the cooking isle

1  box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle

3 bars of Fels-naptha soap, found in the detergent isle

2 small containers of oxyclean or store brand oxyclean (try to get about 3.5 lbs total (1.58 kg)) found in the detergent isle.

(this is optional)

(You can also use Zote soap, it is found at Home Depot)

You should be able to find all of this at your grocery store. We got ours at Walmart, and bought another batch at Kroger (not sure about Target).

Oh, also, you want to get a cheese grater or a food processor and a cutting board.

This detergent is fairly mild smelling, it is not over powering. If you love a strong scent you may have to add a fabric softener to each load but I, personally, LOVE the smell! I want to figure out how to use the naphtha for a potpourri haha.

Step One:

            Grate three bars of Fels-naptha soap. Just like you would cheese. I found it a bit difficult to use the cheese grater because once the soap got small my fingers started to get dangerously close to the grater. The other blog also suggests using a food processor, but we didn't try that (if you do, let me know how it turns out).   I think the grated soap looks really pretty and it smells WONDERFUL!

**Don't worry the Fels-naptha will dissolve in your washer even if you only use cold water like we do.**

Step Two:

            Dump everything else in a 5 gallon bucket lined with a trash bag! We got our bin at Walmart. Mix everything up (at this point your house should smell amazing, as should you!). After you've mixed everything up just choose a little container that you want to store it in. We used a glass jar, like the ones you put cookies in, and keep in above the washing machine. I used my new label maker to label everything, but will hopefully get something prettier for the jar.

Seriously, the most "difficult" part of this soap was grating the little bars. It's so much cheaper and is a lot stronger than regular soap.

*Use at your own risk*

If you have questions just let me know, but you might want to check out the other ladies blog too. I'll copy and paste some questions that she answered below.

-This detergent is safe for HE washers and should be added to the barrel instead of the dispencer.
 -This detergent is safe to use on cloth diapers and sensative skin.
-It does not have a strong scent, you can add laundry crystals to the batch to add fragrance.
-Some of my followers have used other bar soap instead of Zote or Fels-Naptha. I have personally not tried it but from the feed back I get it sounds like any bar will work.

Again, I got this from Being creative to keep my sanity, so check her out too!

That's my Southern Soapbox (soap.. haha get it?.. Lame joke, sorry) I will also be posting directions for homemade dishwasher detergent! Stay tuned!