Monday, October 31, 2011

Making homemade laundry detergent-apx. 1 cent per load :)

 Ivory or Fels Naptha Soap
 Borax and washing soda
Grate your soap into pot of hot water.
 Stir until dissolved
 After dissolved add borax and washing soda.
 Fill 5 gallon buckets.
Let set for 24 hours to form gel. Use one half cup per load.


Recipe..for 10 gallon.. I like to make alot at a time :)

In a large pot place apx. 20 cups of water. Start heating this and add 1-2 bars (grated) soap into the water..let this completley dissolve.(Be careful to not over heat or boil too hard..it will quickly come over the top of the pot if you do!) After this you can add apx. 1.5 - 2 cups each of borax and washing soda.. I like to use the upper limit because my fellars can get clothes DIRTY..lol
Place apx. 3 inches of warm water into the bottom of each five gallon bucket. After mixture in pot is dissolved divide into each of the buckets. After this finish filling the buckets with cold water and stir..some people like to add fabric softner or essential oils for the smells that they like. After 24 hours it is ready to use. One half cup per load. (I use more if lots of stains/dirt) The cost to make this is apx. one cent per load. You can make several batches out of one box each of the borax and soda.
Lots of people make a smaller amount and even transfer them into thier old detergent bottles for easier pouring.. I just use a scoop right out of the bucket.

2 comments:

Joanne said...

Do you know of you can use this in high efficiency washers? I know I have to buy specially labelled detergent, but I'm all for homemade!

Joanne said...

P.S. I don't know if you got my email, but the gift card was mailed today... sorry for the delay!