Homemade Laundry Soap DIY
I was tinkering around on Pinterest the other day when I came across a link to make your own laundry detergent. My curiosity piqued, I checked out the post and a few others, then I Googled and found this recipe was quite common, with a few variations, some that add in Oxy-Clean for instance. I also found recipes for a liquid version which required boiling water and other things that sounded like cooking. I wasn't particularly in the mood to cook soap, so I opted for this version which did not require the use of an oven. You can check out my "home-made" board on Pinterest for other versions of this recipe or just conduct your own web investigation.
Needless to say I was intrigued by the notion of making my own laundry detergent especially since the cost was a lot less than the laundry detergent I buy.
After dropping my son Michael off at school one morning last week I dashed on over to Wal-Mart with my iPad cued into this post on DIY Suds for guidance. It actually took me longer to search for glue-sticks (which they did not have!) than it did to find the ingredients for this recipe. I whipped up this batch in my Mother-in-law's kitchen that morning in under 10 minutes.
With my fresh batch of homemade laundry soap in hand I put it to use and found that it worked great! This soap doesn't get all "sudsy" like one would expect from your usual laundry soap, but the amount of suds in the water doesn't relate to how well your clothes are being cleaned and I could see no notable difference in the cleanliness of my clothes using this soap when compared to the store bought soap I usually use. I've since used it a few other times and will continue to do so. This detergent doesn't imbue any scent to your clothes, but I do use a fabric softener which does. Keep that in mind if you like your laundry to be scented.
To make your own laundry soap here is what you'll need:
Homemade DIY Laundry Soap Ingredients:
- Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap (1 bar)
- Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (1 cup)
- Borax (1 cup)
- Cheese grater or similar to "shred" the bar of soap
- Canister or something to store your detergent in.
To Make Your Own Homemade Laundry Detergent:
Gather your Fels-Naptha soap and cheese shredder thing. Shred the bar of soap-I read that any soap would do such as Ivory but this is what I used. The scent of this soap reminds of me of Pine-sol. However when the clothes are in the wash it smells very lemony and not at all like your toilet bowl.
Shred the entire bar. I varied between really fine shreds and thicker pieces because I thought it looked pretty.Once your done mix one cup each of the Washing
Soda and the Borax. I used a "really" big container I found at Wal-Mart. You could easily fit this into a smaller container or jar.
Use one to two tablespoons of the mixture per load of laundry. (I use two).
I think I'm going to give some of this stuff away as gifts.
I've got plenty of Borax and Washing Soda left over!
Love & making things yourself,
nicóle