Homemade Laundry Soap!

I have been using homemade laundry soap for awhile, and I thought I would share it with anyone who might be interested. It is very inexpensive and EASY to make! So easy, you can get your kids involved!  I also have my own recipes for Febreze, fabric softener, and dishwasher soap that I will share later on.

Things you will need:
2 or 5 gallon bucket
saucepan
cheese grater (large holes)
Box of Washing Soda
Box of Borax
Bar of Fels Naptha washing soap (Or Ivory soap)

The Washing Soda, Borax, and Fels Naptha can all be found in your laundry aisle at the store.

First you grate about half of the bar of soap into a dish.  It's really not as hard to grate as I thought it would be!

 Pour the soap flakes into your saucepan and add 6 cups of water.  Stir over medium heat until soap flakes have melted.

 See the soap flakes?

 No more soap flakes!

Now you need to add 1/2 cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of Washing Soda into your pan and stir until it has dissolved (just a couple of minutes usually).

Remove your pan from the heat and pour 4 cups of HOT water into your bucket.  Add the soap mixture from your saucepan and stir.  Next you need to add 22 cups of COLD water (1 gallon + 6 cups)  Stir and let your mix sit for 24 hours.

 The detergent will gel as it sits, it makes a sort of egg noodle soup consistency.  You can also add about an ounce of your favorite essential oil to the mixture to scent it, I haven't yet because I really like the light, fresh smell of the detergent alone.  This does not make lots of bubbles when you use it, but don't let that fool you.
I have recycled my old detergent containers and that is where I store my homemade detergent, but any airtight container will do!
-It takes 1/2 cup per load of laundry. 

I also keep some OxiClean on hand if I have a super grimy load or I want to soak something before I wash it.  I wish I had a before picture of my husbands hat he wears to work, because after I soaked it in some warm water and Borax/Washing Soda/OxiClean for about an hour, it looked brand new! I swear by this stuff, it really is amazing.  The whole process to make the soap takes about 10 minutes, and it is so inexpensive compared to buying laundry detergent from the store. Happy Washing!