HOMEMADE
LAUNDRY SOAP
1 bar of your favorite soap (I use Fels Naptha)
20 Mule Team Borax
Arm & Hammer Washing Powder
4 gallons hot water, Wooden Spoon, Stock Pot
Large bucket (I use my mop bucket, but any
five-gallon bucket will work)
Empty liquid laundry soap container to store
your homemade soap in
First, put one gallon of water in a large pot
and turn it up high until it boils.
While it's heating up, grate up (I used a
block-style cheese grater) the entire bar of soap. Slowly add the grated soap
to the boiling water and stir with wooden spoon until it melts completely
(takes a few minutes). When finished, you will have warm soap soup that is the
color of your bar of soap. (Mine is yellow.)
Add 3 gallons of hot water to the big bucket,
then add 1 cup of Arm & Hammer washing powder and 1/2 cup of Borax to the
water and stir well with a wooden spoon. Once the bar soap is completely melted
in the boiling water, add that to the bucket and stir well. Once completely
mixed, cover and set aside for 24 hours.
The laundry soap will gel, but may be watery
and have clumps of gel in it. Not to worry - just scoop about 1/2 cup of the
gel/water mixture into your washer. This is a low-suds detergent, so you will
not see many bubbles. Your clothes will come out as clean as Tide with bleach,
but at a fraction of the cost - and smelling much better!
This soap works great with HE or regular
washing machines. Enjoy! :-)
I may have to give this one a try. I just read somewhere else that you can cut up your bar of soap, freeze it and then put it in the food processor with the powdered ingredients instead of having to grate it by hand. Now that I can use a gadget, it's worth a shot!
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