Saturday, January 1, 2011

Fresh Homemade Laundry Soap

I got a wild hair today. Several friends have been discussing making their own laundry soap. They've had great success trying it out. Sooooooooo...I decided to jump on the soap wagon and make some myself today using the recipe from The Family Homestead.

Had trouble finding the ingredients. Krogers and Walmart were like..."You want what?!?!" I finally found some at Ace Hardware of all places. The cashier told me several others had been in over the last couple of weeks doing the same thing. Hmmmm....

Here's what I did...

Homemade Laundry Soap
1/3 bar Fels Naptha (or Ivory)

1/2 cup washing soda (sodium carbonate or soda ash NOT baking soda)
1/2 cup borax powder (sodium borate)

3 gallon bucket (nothing smaller than 2 gallons)

In a large sauce pan (I used my chili pot), grate 1/3 of the Fels Naptha bar. Add 6 cups of water and stir. Heat until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and borax and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat.

Add 4 cups of hot water to your bucket. Pour in the soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of more water (that makes 2 gallons of water) and stir.

Now just set it aside for 24 hours. It will gel and look like egg noodle soup.

Makes enough for 64 1/2-cup loads of dirty laundry.

Check out this breakdown!!
1 bar of Fels Naptha soap ................................ $1.59 ......... 0.57 1/3 bar
1 55oz box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda .... $3.59 ......... 0.30 1/2 cup
1 76oz box of 20 Mule Team Borax ................... $5.99 ......... 0.31 1/2 cup
Tax: ................................................................ $ .92
Supply Total: .................................................. $12.09 ....... $1.18 per batch

When you break it all down even further, it cost $1.18 to make 2 gallons (64 loads) of laundry detergent!!!

That's $0.02 per load!!!!

Compare that to 64 load bottle of liquid Tide for $14+tax or $0.24 per load.

If this works out, I'll be able to get 1,344 loads of laundry from ONE box of Borax! That's 21 batches. I'll have to buy another box of washing soda and 6 more bars of Fels Naptha which should work out to another $14. But...BUT... check this out!!

Making my own laundry detergent for 1,344 loads with a $26.25 investment (1 box borax, 2 boxes washing soda and 7 bars Fels Naptha so it all equals out) would equal... are you ready for this?? Buying the same amount of Tide for 1,344 loads (21 64-load bottles) at $15.12 ($14 + tax) equals... $317.52!

I'll be saving $291.28!!!

Granted, I'm not making high-sudsy Tide. I'm making a cleaner, fresh smelling, low-sudsing laundry detergent. Soap bubbles don't clean...It's the borax and washing soda doing the cleaning. And if I wanted to, I could even add some essential oil or another fragrance to change the scent.

I'm excited. Can't you tell? LOL
Stayed tune for the Son Test. We'll see if it passes his quality check.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for doing the math for me. I paid slightly different prices but it's amazing to see that this is so worth it. And the time involved is less than it takes to go to the store and purchase the expensive detergent!

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  2. LOL I just hope my math is right! It took maybe 15 minutes...if that much...to make it. Easy peasy!

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