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Grandaman.com - Homemade Laundry Soap Recipe
How to make your own home made laundry soap
Purely out of curiosity, we decided to try this out. This soap is good for people with sensitive skin, we use it with all out laundry including our infant's cloth diapers and outfits.
It only takes about 20 minutes to get everything mixed, then let it sit roughly 24 hours before first use.
To hold everything, we bought the cheapest powdered detergent in a 5 gallon bucket and used it so we had something to hold the mixture.
I thought this would be the best route instead of taking a special trip to the hardware store to buy an empty bucket. We had the bonus of keeping the scoop that comes with it too!
I'll give a better break down soon, but when we used to buy the cheap powdered stuff, it was about $0.11 to $0.12 per load not including electricity for the washing machine.
With our recipe, not including cost of electricity/gas/water, our loads now cost about $0.04, and the cost of the utilities really don't ammount to much at all.
This recipe fills about half the bucket - if you do a double recipe, it gets alittle unmanageable
Materials and Ingredients
- 1/2 Bar of Laundry Soap
- We use 1/2 a bar of Fels-Naptha, Colgate's Octagon works as well.
Any other bar soap may be used, but you would probably want to use the whole bar - Ivory is a popular soap as well.
- 1/2 Cup of Borax [Laundry booster]
- Comes in a box - We use the "20 Mule Team".
- 1/2 Cup of Washing Soda
- Comes in a box - we use Arm & Hammer.
- 2 1/2 Gallon bucket with a lid or larger
- We use a 5 Gallon Bucket that used to hold laundry powder.
Cooking Pot
- Roughly the size of something you would cook pasta in.
Cheese Grater
- To shred the bar of soap.
Metal Spoon
- Large enough to stir the contents of the pot.
Procedure
1 - Grate half of the Laundry soap bar into a bowl or plate. We grate the whole thing and store half in a zip-loc bag for the next batch.
2 - Heat 7 Cups of water in the cooking pot - do not let it boil.
3 - Gradually add the grated bar of soap and stir until it is all dissolved
4 - Add the Borax and keep stirring until dissolved
5 - Add the Washing Soda, again, stirring until dissolved
6 - Once dissolved, remove the pot from the heat
7 - In your bucket, add 4 cups of water
8 - Add the soap mixture from the pot to the bucket
9 - Add an additional 21 cups of water to the bucket
10 - Loosely place the lid on and let it sit for about 24 hours
11 - Break it up with a spoon or your hand - I've even heard of people putting it through a blender to help liquify it
What it will look like
It will not be pretty - resembling a giant pale slime or jello mold. Use a spoon or your hand to break it up and mix it all together. It may be a little watery with "gell globs" so make sure to thoroughly mix and get alittle of everything with each scoop you use.
Notes & Tips
- Use about a half of a cup for a large load of laundry. Use more if heavily soiled.
- For the bar of soap, we grate the whole bar, then put half into a zip-loc bag for the next batch.
- Since it has to sit over-night, you may want to have 2 buckets available for making laundry soap so you always have some ready.
- Think about getting a separate bucket just to keep the materials & ingredients together and ready to make soap, maybe even tape the recipe to the lid.
- Its also a great cleaner for the bath tub & shower when you need something to cut through grease.
- Instead of using a store bought fabric softener, try using distilled white vinegar. Half a cup per load will soften your clothes just as well and will even brighten colors.
Not to mention the extra savings in laundry expenses - we buy the cheap vinegar at our local "bulk discount store" such as Sam's Club or BJ's
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