Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Homemade Laundry Soap - Less than 2 cents per load!

I made my own laundry soap!  I figured out the cost per load 3 times because I didn't think it could possibly be correct!  =)  The cost of my normal store bought brand is $0.16 per load.  Wow, that is a huge difference!  I made a 1.5 gal batch for a mere $1.25.  Needless to say, I am extremely pleased.  The house smelled pretty darn good too after making a batch.


Ingredients
1/3 bar of Fels Naptha soap
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
(All ingredients were purchased at Walmart in the detergent aisle and conveniently located next to each other.)

 Fun Tip:  Wet bar, wet garment and pre-treat stains.


How I Did It
1.  I started grating the bar soap directly into a sauce pan.  This proved to be a pain in the rear.  The soap stuck to the grater, it was a mess.  Instead, I cut a third of the bar and chopped it up into smaller pieces with a butter knife.  It chopped easily.  I placed the pieces, along with 1/4 cup of borax into my Magic Bullet and chopped it up.  The borax kept the soap from sticking to the blade.



2.  I put 6 cups of water into the sauce pan and added my chopped soap and borax mixture.  I heated the water, stirring frequently, until the soap was melted.  This took approximately 10 minutes, about the time it took to bring the mixture to a boil.  I added the remaining Borax and Washing Soda and stirred until dissolved.


3.  I poured my mixture into an empty 1 1/2 gallon laundry detergent container and filled the container with water.


4.  Add 1/2 teaspoon of essential oil, if desired.

5.  Use 1/3 cup per load of laundry, good for high efficiency washers.

Yields 72 loads of clean laundry!

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