Homemade Laundry Soap

Here is one thing I know.  I do not like the amount of money that we spend at the grocery store.  This includes purchases that go beyond food.  Laundry soap, hand washing soap, dishwasher detergent, paper towels, napkins, etc.

Here's a link for a recipe I found on Pinterest for Homemade Laundry Soap.  I have made a whole batch two times and it has lasted our family well over 5 months.  Each batch cost aproximently $1.75.

http://makingcooleystuff.blogspot.com/2012/01/laundry-detergent.html

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda- the link says to use 1/2 bar but after researching it, I decided to use a whole bar.

1 bar Fels-Naptha Soap

(I found all these at our local Mejer's in the laundry isle.)

 Grate the Fels-Naptha into the stockpot.  I used my Pampered Chef Mandolin to grate it but a friend of mine told me that there is a way to microwave the bar that makes it flake.  I'll have to research it.

 Add 1 gallon of water and heat on stove top until the soap flakes are dissolved.

 Add the Washing Soda and Borax and bring to a boil.

Add 1 gallon of cold water.  Let the laundry soap sit for 1-2 hrs. to cool and then pour it into your containers.  I used 2- gallon distilled water jugs and labeled them with a sharpie. 

Note-  If you forget about your detergent and it cools to long, it is too thick to pour.  If you reheat it the next evening and forget about it again, it is again too thick to pour.  If you have to reheat it for a third time and you pour the liquid into the jugs, it will cool and thicken up so much that you won't be able to pour it out to wash your clothes.  I think it that be because too much water evaporated.  You would just need to add  hot water to the jug and shake it to make it pourable.  Not that this happened to me, but I'm just saying.