Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

I have been making my own laudry soap for my family for a couple of years now.  We have 3 boys and a farm, so I have sooo much laundry to do, ALL THE TIME!!!!

Let's face it, laundry soap is expensive and I needed a way to save money in all aspects of my life.  I have tried quite a few different recipes and found this one that I love the best.
You can make powder laundry soap too with these same ingredients but I found that it doesn't last as long in my house hold (you only use about 2 tbsp., and for our dirty kids it never seemed like enough so I would use more).

Here's the ingredients and the cost (from Wal-Mart)

20 mule team Borax $3.38

 

Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda - $3.38

 

Fels Naptha - $0.97

 

5 gallon bucket

 

I don't remember what I paid for this, you only have to buy 1, one time - $4.00 (approx)

 

Ok so here's the steps....

 

 

1. On the stove in a pot (I just use a normal pot, it doesn't bother me, after all it's soap not chemicals) grate the bar of Fels-Naptha until its all finely grated.  Add 4 cups of HOT tap water and cook on the stove until the grated bar is melted and uniform with the water.

 

2.  While the pot is cooking, measure out 1/2 cup of the Borax and 1 cup of the Super Washing soda and set aside.

 

3.  Once the mixture on the stove is all melted and uniform.  Fill your bucket half way with HOT water.  Add the pre-measured Borax and Washing soda, then add the melted bar of soap (stove pot).  Mix well.  Content will bubble, don't worry that's normal.

 

 

 

Mixture on the stove almost melted!

 

 

Pouring the mixture into the half filled bucket of hot water and powder mixture!

 

4.  Once you have added all of the mixtures and bucket is well stirred, fill the bucket the rest of the way with HOT water.

 

5. Place lid on your bucket and set aside somewhere in your kitchen or laundry room out of the way.

 

 

6.  It will take a few hours to overnight to cool.  Once cool, you can take the lid off and stir mixture. The contet will look like "gel" and watery at the same time.  Just mix it through breaking up the big chunks of gel. 

 

7.  Now some recpies tell you to take an old laundry container that has been cleaned out and fill it half way with water and fill the rest with the laundry solution you just made.  So the laundry soap you made actally makes 10 gallons of soap.  I do not dilute it down further, I just use it as is.  I like that it is more concentrated for reasons I stated earlier with my dirty family :)

 

8.  If you choose to dilute it further or keep it as is, you can add your favorite fragrance.  Sometimes I like the regular smell of it, and other times I add just a little bit of essential/fragrance oil to the mixture.  This time I added honeysuckle (trying to keep a somewhat masculine but clean scent for my boys, lol).

 

 

 

9.  Once you are all done, it only takes about 1/2 cup per load of laundry, or just however much you think you need.

 

 

So I hope everyone has enjoyed my contribution to the mom's trying to save money out there.

 

Here is the price breakdown per the prices I paid (since everywhere is different)

 

Per batch:  1/2 cup borax           - $ 0.17

                   1 cup washing soda - $ 0.49

                   1 bar Fels Naptha    - $ 0.97

                  Total          - $1.63 for 5 or 10 gallons of laundry soap(Depending on how you dilute)

 

Pretty good deal if you ask me!!!!