Homemade Laundry Soap...Time to Make a Mess

Hey guys, it's been a bit since I did a post.  I've had a few people ask me how I make the homemade laundry soap that I use, so this one will be focused on making this money saving stuff.


So without further adieu, and including breaks every sentence to finish dinner here we go!
 There are only up to five ingredients that you use when making your own laundry soap. The fifth ingredient is up you to decide on. This soap is about as close as you can get to chemical free, it doesn't leave behind  any fragrance other than one that could be described as..."clean". That is unless you add the essential oils.


I have made the soap a couple of times now, today was my third time in alittle over a year. I have not bought regular laundry soap in that long! There are a few things you will need water, certain bar soap, arm and hammer washing soda, borax, essential oil. (Wow, I was sort of joking about writing a sentence and then working on dinner, but it's actually worked out that way.) Now break for dinner...this is taking forEVER to write! 



Ok, back now. Got a bit side tracked there for a moment. I know, I know it was for awhile. I have tried three different recipes to find the one that works the best. The last time I made it super concentrated in the hopes of not having to use as much. For some reason...it didn't seem to work better, but worked just the same as the diluted one. I could be that I used different soap or something.


I will now talk about the soap to use. You want to stay with the soaps that have the least ingredients and fragrances in them. Part of the reason for making my own laundry soap was to save money and the other reason was to limit the exposure of chemicals to the family.  After doing a lot of reading it seems the soaps to use are as follows: Fels-Naptha, Zote, Kirk's Original Coco Castile, Ivory Soap, and Sunlight bar soap. I haven't used the Ivory, or been able to find the Sunlight yet. The others can sometimes be picked up at the local hardware store, grocery store, and I even found the Kirk's Castile in a three pack at the dollar store. You know the store where it actually cost a dollar for everything? Just about fell over on that one.



Here is a little advise. You will be grating the bar of soap. It's a pain in the ass. You should really, really use the finest grater you have. I used the food processor...didn't care for that mess. The reason for getting it grated as small as possible is for the dissolve time. OMG! I so didn't know about this the first time. I stood at the stove stirring forever waiting for that stuff  to dissolve. (I never got it all dissolved either. I was there for over an hour.)  Big pieces bad, little pieces very good! So for the first time that I made it I used 2 cups of the Fels-Naptha bar soap (found it at my local grocery store down the street in the laundry isle)  with 1 quart of water. It was nice to work with, and left the "clean" scent. Oh yeah, stir, stir, stir.



I then put 2 cups of Borax in my bucket. You can usually find Borax in the laundry isle, bottom shelf at any store. I happened to get mine from Walmart. 



I had a hard time finding the next item. Every store I went too they didn't have it. I think I might have read that some stores keep it in the backroom, and you have to ask for it. Anyhow I added 2 cups of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda. Notice I wrote Washing Soda. This is what you need, and it can't be substituted with Baking Soda. Washing Soda is Sodium Carbonate,  while Baking Soda is Sodium Bicarbonate. Don't screw it up now. I have no idea what will or wont happen if you use Baking Soda, but let's not find out. K? Good, moving on. Oops, I forgot. I found this stuff at my local Ace Hardware. It is something the chain carries, so if your store doesn't carry it...tell them nicely to please order it. Then again I don't know if you have an Ace Hardware by you, but they do have online shopping.


You will need a five gallon bucket with a tight fitting lid to mix this slop all up and let it set. I just bought one of Ace's buckets since I didn't have one. You take your nice and clean bucket and pour in the hot liquid soap you just made. You then add the Borax, and Washing Soda. Start stirring again people. You want those powders to dissolve completely. You can add 2 gallons of hot, hot water in at anytime, and keep stirring until everything is all dissolved and mixed thoroughly.


Pop that cover on it, and set it in a warm spot somewhere out of the way. Trust me on this, as we tripped over it constantly. (My kitchen is tiny peoples) Don't touch it for 24hrs. Yes you must wait 24hrs for it to do it's thing.
Once your 24hrs has passed, (do you get the drift that you must wait 24hrs? Thought so.) take that top off and prepare to be grossed out. Yep you now have some slime, gel, goopy stuff. Well actually first you must break up the slime. Reach those hands in there and just start squeezing clumps and breaking them up, and then once again stir, stir, stir. I found that using my electric hand blender worked well on the clumps and I never had to give it a shake to break them up before pouring the soap. During this time you can add your essential oils if you choose to use them. I haven't used them yet, but what everyone seems to agree on is 10-15 drops per every 2 gallons. Stir them up good


With this laundry soap you will need to give the bottle a couple of shakes before pouring and you use 1/4 cup of soap per large load. Adjust quantity as needed until you find your perfect amount.  Holy buckets that took along time to write. I am including the last  two recipes that I tried making. They are both made the same as described here with the exception of #3 where I added hot water to the top of the bucket.  I noticed that whenever I use this soap I never have static cling with my clothes no matter what the season or how long they have been drying in the dryer. So I have saved a bundle on dryer sheets too.


Place soap in old laundry soap containers. You don't really have to clean them out unless they somehow got dirt or something in them. I think maybe, possibly that I got 12-14 various sized containers filled out of this batch.

#1
2 Cups Fels-Naptha  finely grated (about half a bar)
1 quart water
2 cups Borax
2 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
2 gallons hot water
5 gallon bucket with top
essential oils-optional




#2
1 quart water
About 1/2 bar Fels-Naptha bar soap finely grated
1/2 bar Zote bar soap finely grated
2 cups Borox
2 cups Washing soda
3 gallons hot water


#3 one I tried today
1 quart water
1/2 Zote bar soap
1/2 Kirk's Castile bar soap (this clogged up my grater big time)
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cups Borax
Filled the bucket to the top with hot tap water. 


Please note that all the bars of soap are different sizes so to compare them that way wouldn't work out. You would have to do it by a different measurement system than half a bar to know the exact amount that you are using.