Laundry Day

When all the kids were home, every day was laundry day.  Now I do 

laundry twice a week and even have time to iron.  It's a lot easier.

I have a number of friends who have been making their own laundry

detergent.  I've thought it was a neat idea, but I've been slow to jump

on that bandwagon.  First of all, I'm kinda persnickety when it comes

to my laundry.  I was perfectly happy with the detergent I've been using

for years.  I like the way it smells and it cleans my clothes.  But laundry

detergent is expensive and when I found out how inexpensively you 

can make your own, well, my frugal side talked me into giving it a try.

I've been saving my empty detergent containers for awhile now and 

the plan was to make my own when I ran out of what I had in storage.

That day came this weekend.  

These are the ingredients needed to make your own laundry detergent 

and they can all be purchased at Walmart and most grocery stores.

I tripled the recipe.  I probably shouldn't have, because it made a lot of

detergent - more than I had containers for.  Next time, I will double it.

I cut the Fels-Naptha in pieces and used my food processor to shred it.

Then I put it in water and heated it on the stove to melt the soap.

It had a nice fresh scent that I really liked.   And I'm ok with the color yellow, 

even though the laundry detergent you buy in the store is usually

blue or green.  

I used a 5 gallon bucket to mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Borax and washing soda and lots of water.  The Borax helps with 

removing stains and odors and the washing soda is a detergent booster.

Mixing up a triple batch almost filled this bucket to the top.

After mixing everything together, I put it into my empty containers.

I filled up six containers and had enough left for two more.  Darn it, I 

should have saved up a little longer.  I will use the detergent out of the

bucket until it is gone.

It has to sit overnight and then it's ready to be used.  I was anxious to try

it out. It thickens and becomes kind of "globby".  I can't think of a better

word to use and I think I just made that one up.  It's thinner than store bought

detergent.  It has to be shaken before you use it.  It's fine for HE machines 

and it's low sudsing.  

And the verdict - I liked it just fine!  It has a nice smell.  It cleaned my 

clothes.  I have 6 bottles sitting in storage and enough to fill 2 more. 

The ingredients were a total of $7.19 and the amount to make a triple

batch of detergent is ............$2.16! 

Yep, you read that right.  $2.16

The last bottle of Tide I bought on super sale was $ 9.99.

Let's see - $9.99 vs. $.30

That is an amazing savings.

Another thing I like about this is that I can store the ingredients to

make it in a small space in my storage, rather than taking up lots of 

room with bottles of store bought  detergent.

I'm sold.

Tara's Homemade Laundry Detergent

1/3 bar Fels-Naptha soap

1/2 cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax powder

Grate the soap and put it in saucepan. 

Add 6 cups water and heat until the soap melts.

Add the washing soda and borax and stir until it is 

dissolved.  Remove from heat.

Pour 4 cups water into the bucket.  

Add your soap mixture and stir.

Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups water and stir.

Pour into containers, leaving room to shake.

Let sit for 24 hours and it will gel.  

Use 1/2 cup per load.

*The finished soap will not be a solid gel.  It will

be more of a watery gel.  Shake before using.

After a few shakes, it will not separate and will look

more like regular laundry soap.

*MYOF Goals  # 31 - Save $50 a week