Works For Me Wednesday – Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have posted before about how I make my own laudnry detergent several times, including last Wednesday. After reading the comment asking for the recipe, I searched (my own blog) and realized that I had never posted the recipe I use!

So here it is!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

1/3 of a bar of Fels Naptha Soap, grated
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)

Disolve the grated soap in 3 cups of water over medium heat. When the soap is disolved, stir in the borax, until disolved. Then stir in the washing soda.

In a 2 gallon bucket, put 1 gallon of hot water, then stir in the soap mixture. Stir well, then fill bucket the rest of the way with cold water.

Let the bucket sit for 24 hours. It will become jelled. After 24 hours, use a mixer to break it up, until smooth. Pour into empty laundry detergent bottles.

This also makes an awesome stain remover. Measure the amount for your laundry load, pour some directly onto the stain, then put the rest in the washer. It gets out most everything my kids throw at me. 🙂

This is very, very inexpensive! The last time I bought supplies, the soap was $1 or $1.19, and the borax and washing soda are about $3. box. So for $7 to $8. dollars I get 3 batches of laundry detergent, with each batch making 4-5 bottles, depending on the size of the bottle. That’s 12 – 15 bottles of laundry detergent for $7. to $8!! I also have lots of the borax and washing soda left over.

I like to use them for cleaning the house also. I usually have enough to do more batches of laundry detergent, making the coast of each later batch even less expensive.

I just look for pictures to post, but I couldn’t find any. I guess I have never taken pictures of my laundry detergent. lol I’ll have to next time I make it.

Making my own laundry detergent Works For Me!