Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Homemade Laundry Soap (yep, I do that too!)

I've been asked for the recipe for the homemade laundry soap I use(which yes, works great....I've tested it on some pretty nasty laundry) If you click on the link below, it will take you to the website I got this from.

Homemade Laundry Soap
1/3 bar Fels Naptha soap, grated (I think the website has other stuff you can use)
1/2 cup washing soda (NOT baking soda, but made by Arm and Hammer and found in the laundry aisle)
1/2 cup Borax (also found in laundry aisle)

Place grated soap (be sure to grate it or it takes forever and a day to melt!) and 6 cups of water in a large saucepan. Heat until soap melts. Add washing soda and Borax and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups of hot water into the bucket you will store the soap in (I have a 2-gallon plastic bucket as that's about how much it makes). Add the soap mix to the water in the bucket and stir. Add 1 gallon + 6 more cups of water and stir. Let sit for 24 hours. It will get kind of gelled (both times I've made it, the consistency was a little different), but regardless, it WILL work! It doesn't make a lot of suds (which is good as we were getting too much with the regular soap). Use about 1/2 cup per load.

Also, if you want, you can add several drops of essential oil if you like your laundry to be scented (I do...I use a citrus type oil that I add in while the soap mix is in the saucepan)

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