Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Homemade Laundry Soap

 
I've always wanted to make homemade laundry soap, so when my friend Tracy posted a recipe on her blog, I was inspired to try it. I've only been using it for a couple of days, but am surprised how well it works. It has gotten all the stains out of the kids clothes, and believe me...their clothes were DIRTY. They had a great time playing outside in the dirt yesterday, and were making mud pies and all sorts of fun concoctions. So, I thought I would put this new soap to it's test, and am impressed how clean their clothes are. 
I was a little worried at first when I was grating the fels-naptha soap, because it had a very strong smell to it. I am super sensitive to fragrances, but I stuck with it, and when I used the homemade laundry soap in the wash, the clothes didn't have a strong smell to them, so I was relieved. If you want, you can also add a couple drops of essential oils like lemon or orange to give your clothes a citrus boost. 
I will definitely be using this laundry soap from now on because it is SOOO much cheaper than buying regular detergent from the store. My friend Tracy calculated it to be $1.15 for 2 cups of laundry soap (which is how much the recipe yields). You are only using 1 TB per batch of clothes so you can get 32 loads of clothes for $1.15! Per load you are only spending 3.5 cents. Not bad! 
I found all of these items at my local grocery store, so next time you go shopping check them out! This laundry soap is great for HE Washers, because it is low sudsing. 

 
 Laundry Soap Recipe
 
1 cup Fels-Naptha Soap, grated, use the smallest holes on your grater or my friend Tracy suggested using a microplane
1/2 cup washing soda (not baking soda)
1/2 cup Borox

1.Mix everything up in an old container...I used an old washed out yogurt container.
When doing laundry, use 1 TB per batch.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you find any good homemade dishwasher soap let us know, too! - Renee

Shauna said...

Love the cheap and eco-friendly laundry and cleaning tips and recipes. Thank you!

Meal Planning Made Simple said...

Renee-I've played a little with homemade dish soap, but haven't tried dishwasher soap. That will be my next expedition! :)
Shauna-Thanks so much! I'm glad to you enjoy my blog.

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of recipes online for homemade dishwasher soap.

I love this recipe - I used to make it all the time. Think I need to get back to it.

Gina said...

I've been wanting to try making my own soap. I always wondered if it would make really filthy clothes clean. You've made me excited about trying it.
Gina

Meal Planning Made Simple said...

Gina-I've been experimenting with this laundry soap for about 3 weeks now, and really love it for our clothes. Now...for our cloth diapers, it's a different story.

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