Friday, May 6, 2011

Step-by-Step Homemade Laundry Soap Instructions

When I posted the recipe for homemade laundry soap a few weeks ago, many of you were interested but felt it might be too complicated to do. To prove to you all how easy it is (and in honor of Mother's Day) my mom generously offered to demonstrate the process for everyone. Thanks goes to Nana, a fellow Hectic Domestic, who uses this soap exclusively and does her laundry for only 2 cents a load!
These are the ingredients we need:
1 bar Fels-Naptha soap (If you can't find this, homemade bar soap will do)
1 cup Arm and Hammer washing soda
1/2 cup Borax


Step One: Grate the bar soap to a fine crumble. The smaller, the better. 
Step Three: Add 4 cups of water


Step Four: Heat on medium, stirring until melted

Step Five: Add to a 5 gallon bucket with remaining ingredients and stir until dissolved

Step Six:
Fill Bucket 1/2 full with water and stir again (Nana tip: Add a squirt of Dawn dish soap to mix for grease fighting power!)

Step Seven: Fill Almost full and stir again. Let sit overnight.

Stir well and bottle it up! You may dilute with water as much as you want, up to half/half.  Use a regular cap-full of soap for each load.

2 comments:

  1. You can also add essential oils to boost cleaning and to give it a nice smell. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the smell of it anyway, but sometimes I use Lavender, Lemon, or even Tangerine essential oils for a change. This detergent can also go directly on spots (i.e.Shirt of husband's who wear what they eat for lunch) as a pre-treater, thus saving even more money.

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  2. Thanks for the great ideas. My hubby doesn't care for the smell "as is". I'm sure a little essential oil would make it more to his liking.
    Jessica, aka Hectic Domestic

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