4 cups hot tap water
1 bar of soap
1 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
(local grocery stores carry Washing Soda and Borax in the detergent aisle...especially Publix)
Step #1: Choose your soap (I used Ivory this time). I use 2 1/2 bars to make a 56 Quart storage bin, but you may not want to do this much.
Step #2: Chop up your soap and put it in the water over medium heat. Some people like to grate it, but this makes more work. Just use a sharp knife. If it's hard soap, let your hubby chop it up.
Step #3: Stir it continually (don't take breaks from stirring or it'll get chunky and won't have a good syrup-like consistency...believe me, I messed up my second batch of this last time by doing this!) until it is completely dissolved.
Step #4: Fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, Washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Stir and let is sit overnight.
Step #5: After the mixture has set overnight, fill up an empty detergent container 1/2 way, add water to fill it up the rest of the way and shake well before using.
*Optional* You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons once soap has cooled.
Top Load Washer: Use 5/8 cup per load (180 loads)
Front Load Washer: Use 1/4 cup per load (640 loads)
Let me know if you give this a try. I'd like to know how it turns out!
3 comments:
I'm glad you posted the recipe again. One of the subs at school said that she made her own laundry detergent (sounds like the same recipe) and said it works great. I might try it sometime soon as we are getting low on laundry detergent.
By the way, the last time you posted this was in July 2008.
What do you do with the leftover detergent? Meaning, what do you do with the stuff that you don't put in the detergent container? I think I might try this. It sounds like a great way to save some bucks!
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