[Parker]

I just made my own laundry soap using a recipe that is supposed to provide enough soap for a year's worth of laundry for a family of 4:

3 Bars of Fels Naptha laundry soap ($.97 ea at Wal-Mart)
1 Box of Borax (76 oz for $3.38 at WM)
1 Box of Washing Soda (55 oz for $3.24 at WM)
1-2 Bottles of Purex Fabric Softener Crystals (I used 2 - 28 oz - for $4.76 at WM)
2 Cups of Baking Soda (I am not seeing this on my rec't, so apparently I got this for free - oops - but the big 4 lb box I got from the laundry section of WM - was something like $3.50 I think)

Note #1: I left off the Oxy-Clean that the recipe called for, which was 2 tubs (3 lbs each) because they were something like $8 each and so many people in the comments of this blog said they left the Oxy off, so I skipped it. I figured I could always add it later if I so choose (again, according to the comments in this blog, the dollar store has the tubs for $4 ea, cutting the cost of it in half). Leaving out that 6 lbs of ingredients will undoubtedly shorten how long this will last; but for just me, it should still last a while.

Note #2: I didnt realize the Purex was fabric softener - the bottles just say "laundry enhancer" - so I probably could have gotten something else (like Durex) cheaper. Now I know & will check other products if/when I make this again. FYI, the cost of the Purex also depends on the fragrance you get - I wanted the lavender, but it was twice as much as this tropical splash.

Note #3: Back to the comments, several people left off the Purex and Baking Soda as well and just used the Fels Naptha, Washing Soap, and Borax in an effort to keep their laundry as chemical free as possible. I chose to add the Purex because (a) I dont like how the Fels Naptha smells and (b) I like the idea of adding the fabric softener.

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Enough with the notes, let's move on!

The Fels Naptha needs to be grated. I have a small (small as in hand-held small) food processor and I used that - it took a while because I could only run 1/4 of a bar at a time in it and I added Borax to it so the soap wouldnt get all sticky and clumpy on the blades. But as long as it took, it wasnt nearly as long as it would have been if grating by hand!

After the Fels Naptha was grated up nice and pretty much a powder, I poured it into a clean trash bag with the rest of the box of Borax, the box of Washing Soap, the 2 bottles of Purex, and the 2 cups of Backing Soda.

I rolled the bag around and shook it like shake-n-bake until all the ingredients were thoroughly mixed together and then I poured it into these 2 square plastic jars (1 gal ea for $2.97 ea at WM) - and I will re-use the garbage bag in my laundry room.

The idea is to use 2 TBSP per load - some of the people mentioned that they used 1/4 cup (4 TBSP) per load - some people said they could only use it in warm water - others said they had no problems with it dissolving in cold water - and people with high efficiency front loading machines said this worked just fine in those -- so ymmv. I'll probably start off with 2-3 TBSP and my usual cold water and see how that works and then change things up if necessary.

What you see pictured here is the final product.





I decided to try this instead of the homemade liquid soap because this was one huge batch that would last a long time, while the liquid soap is easy, yes, but made a gallon at a time. Here's the recipe for that:

3 Tablespoons Borax
3 Tablespoons Washing Soda
2 Tablespoons Dawn Dish soap

Put these ingredients in a one gallon jug. Pour 4 cups boiling water into the jug. Swirl until ingredients are dissolved in the liquid. Let liquid cool. Then fill almost to the top with cold water. The bubbles will overflow out of the bottle.
I love this because you can pick an awesome scent with the Dawn dish soap. This dish soap works the best because it gets grease out.

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Btw, this is all from the "Homemade Solution" section of the One Good Thing by Jillee blog. In it, you can also find other stuff like how to make your own fabric softener crystals, mouthwash, antihistamine, moisturizer, hand sanitizer, etc.

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eta: if you are prone to allergies - or even if you are not and just want to be all safe as houses - I would recommend wearing a mask while grating and mixing all of this powder. Most, if not all of it says harmful if swallowed, if prolonged skin contact, if in eyes, etc and I inadvertantly breathed some of it in while I was mixing and even after using my neti pot, I have one helluva headache from it. So, yeah - masks. lol