Friday, October 8, 2010

Friday Favorite: Making Laundry Soap

Daily Stuff 018

I have embarked as a pioneer woman by making my own laundry detergent! I know it sounds insane… and maybe crazy, but it’s not that difficult and it is CHEAP.

Finding all the ingredients was a bit of a challenge. I had the hardest time finding the soap – I ended up ordering the Fells Naptha Soap through a hardware store. They were $1.79/bar. The other hard thing to find was the Washing Soda which ended up being at my local grocery store! I checked Target, Walmart & Walgreens to no avail. Who would’ve thought? I bought my Borax at Target – the cheapest place, I found. I also ordered tea tree oil here to add to laundry loads as a disinfectant. I bought a cheap cheese grater to use just for grating the soap so my cheese doesn’t taste like soap. :)

Homemade Laundry Detergent (Powder)

2 cups Fels Naptha Soap (finely grated – you could also try Ivory or Zote soap)
1 cup Washing Soda (Not baking soda)
1 cup Borax

Mix well and store in air tight container (or cute jar!).

Use 1 tablespoon per load – 2 if extra dirty! I add a couple drops of tea tree oil most of the time. 

The last time I made this, I doubled the recipe and did add a little bit of baking soda to my formula. It seems to work great in my HE washer!

4 comments:

  1. Do you find it cleans your clothes just a good as a store bought brand? Do you have a he washing machine? We just have a plain non he top loader and I was wondering if this detergent would work for us!
    Thanks

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  2. I have always been curious about this. So can you tell more? I've always been worried that it would cause my clothes to fade faster than another detergent would.

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  3. I did this but made a liquid version...fun, easy, and cleaned really, really well.

    We do not have a HE washing machine....

    ReplyDelete
  4. sounds great..
    thanks for the menu..
    will try it soon..

    ReplyDelete

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