Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

I have made the powdered laundry soap last summer and although it cleaned the clothes well, the finely grating of the soap, etc. was just too much of a pain for me.  My neighbor who I walk with each morning, told me that she’s been making the liquid version and been very happy with it and so since I still had all the ingredients on hand, I  decided to make a batch now that I’m almost out of my commercial soap.  Below is my process of making it, along with the recipe.

First Step
1 cup grated Fels Naptha Soap
1 quart boiling water
Slowly mix the soap pieces into the boiling water until they dissolve. Then, pour the mix into a big (5 gal or more) bucket or a rubbermaid tote.

Second Step
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Washing Soda
Mix both of them into the soap; stir until they dissolve.

Third Step
2 Gallons warm water
Gradually add the water while stirring.
Everything I read said the stuff would get goopy, so a friend suggested the warm water so the cleaning agents don’t congeal as quickly.

Pour into old laundry soap bottles or cleaned out milk jugs…whatever you’ve got. Then use 1/2 cup per load.
*Update:  I used this today after it had sat in the bottles all night, it really became a nice “gel” and so before each use, make sure you shake your bottle really good.

 

The Ingredients

Grating the Fels Naptha Soap

Melting the Fels Naptha soap ~ looks like egg soup!

Mixing all ingredients in a rubbermaid tote!

The finished product, all bottled up!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

So my kitchen science experiment for today was making homemade laundry detergent. I’ve done a bit of research on this by reading several internet sites and have realized that quite a bit of savings can be made by making your own and most have stated that it works just as well, if not better than commercial detergent.

When I posted “my status” on facebook today that I wanted to do this and receiving several responses, I decided to give it a try. One of my friends, Cheryl, gave me this recipe below for powdered detergent and so it’s what I decided to go with since it’s coming from a personal source. I also have a recipe for “liquid” detergent and might try that one down the road. It requires a 5 lb. bucket, of which we did not have laying around, and so for storage reasons, decided to go with the powder.

In preparation for making this, in recent weeks, I had purchased both types of soap called for in the recipe, Fels Naptha and Kirk’s Castile, and so I made a batch of each. For the shaving/grating, I cut it up the bar of soap in to chunks and then used my chef’s chopper to “grate” it. I barely use my chopper, believe it or not, for food chopping and so I figured I might as well get some sort of use out of it!

We will run out of commercial laundry soap this week and so I will then try this homemade mix and report my feedback!!

Ingredients
1 cup Fels Naptha or Kirk’s Castile, shaved and grated
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup washing soda

Directions
Use ONE tablespoon per load.
Use a little more if you have an especially dirty load.