Homemade Laundry Soap

I am always looking for ways to be frugal and save money, especially down the road if I get to be a stay at home mom since we will have to scrimp and save more.  I decided that making laundry soap was a great way to save money.  I talked to numerous friends on one of my message boards and a lot of them had tried a particular recipe and loved it.  I wanted a liquid soap recipe, but they all involved cooking and the one I used just involved mixing ingredients in a garbage bag so you can probably figure out which recipe this lazy gal went with.

Without further ado, here is the original blog post on Being Creative to Keep my Sanity that the recipe comes from.  http://beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/2010/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html

1 Borax Laundry Booster, 76 oz Box

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda

1  box 55 oz Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

3 bars of Fels Naptha or 2 bars of Zote.

Around 3.5 lbs oxy clean (can be store brand.)  I always buy the store brand and then just use half of the six pound tub.

Laundry crystals  (Optional but I love scent on my clean clothes.  I used Purex the first time, but splurged on the second batch I made and got Gain crystals and my clothes smell like Gain!)

Okay there are the ingredients linked to Amazon for those that like shopping from their couch!

I followed her recipe with the exception of adding a container of the Purex crystals just for scent.  Hopefully Destructo does okay with this since I have always used scent free detergents thus far.  But it just smelled so good and I used to be a Gain addict because your entire closet would smell good and you could smell the scent on your clothes for days.  If he doesn't do well with it, I figure I can give my mom this batch and make it without the crystals.

I am washing my first load of clothes with this right now.  And funny story to go along with that.  I decided to make the soap in the living room floor.  I do NOT recommend this.   I inevitably spilled some of the ingredients on my living room rug.  No biggie, but this involved me having to vacuum.  But hey, at least my living room smells good.  I stored it in a giant Rubbermaid container.  But I had the genius idea that I could keep a small amount of the soap in the Purex crystals container and be able to pour it out.  It worked wonderfully. 

So I went to do the first load and I was ohh so excited.  I decided to wash my guest pillows.  Destructo likes to crawl all over them and they had hand prints on them.  Take my word when I say do NOT wash bed pillows in your normal sized washing machine.  Especially not the down alternative kind.  I might or might not have flooded my entire laundry room.  Mr. Destructo didn't even  offer to help me.  Maybe because I had put him into a scent overload by making this soap next to his chair while he watched TV.   Ooops.  Now the pillows are chillaxing in my bath tub since they weigh at least 50 pounds.  I am not really sure what the plan is from there.  I guess I am going to hope that Mr. Destructo needs to shower before I do and has to deal with them???

Okay I am convinced.  The towels seemed clean and smelled pretty good.  Yes these were the towels I used to mop up my flooded floor.  The real test will come when I wash some of Destructo's clothes.  He gets everything filthy.  I plan on this true test of champions tomorrow.  I will keep you guys updated. Oh and just so you guys know this cost me around 25 bucks to make and according to the original blog author should last around a year. 

Next up on the I can make stuff cheaply is dishwasher detergent.

Edited to add:  This lasted from the end of August to the middle of May.  I kept up with the receipt when I bought the stuff to make new and it will end up being around 2.50 a month.  This is also with me using Gain crystals this time which are more expensive since I love the way Gain smells.  If you don't do the Purex crystals/Gain crystals which are mainly just because I love the fresh clean scent on my clothes, it brings the monthly cost down to somewhere around 1.50.


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