Homemade Laundry Soap

You never know what you get when you go to Wal-mart. Specially when you’ve been under budget all month. This is what I brought home when I did a run for protein drinks. I’ve never bought protein drinks and had a terrible time finding them. Thus the reason I found soap while looking for drinks…lol!

I found Fels –Naptha! I’ve never found this stuff before but at this out-of-the-way (yet huge) wal-mart, there it was, and right next to the washing soda and borax. Everything I need to make my own homemade laundry detergent. So, as any good wife does I scooped it up even though I am not even close to running out of laundry detergent. (still working on 5 gallons of liquid detergent I made in Janurary.)

I was surprised at how yellow the Fels-Naptha is! I guess it is a stain removing bar. I think you get it wet and rub it on the stains on your clothes. Glad they came out with Shout, though I bet this works great too. It was 99 cents a bar.
There are many recipes for home made landry soap. Many can be found here. I like this link because it has so many you can see what you have on hand and then make it. Or you can try out liquid instead of powder…lots of options.
The recipe I used this time is a touch different and even with that I changed it a little. I got it from Mommy minded blog here!

Here is my adapted version:
1/2 cup grated Dove bar soap (if you leave it out for a day or two it is easier to grate)
1/2 cup grated Fels-Naptha (About 1/2 bar)
1 cup Washing Soda (not baking soda)
1 cup Purex Crystals
 

First I grated theFels-Naptha


Then I stuck it in my (Little) food processor to created a finer grate.
I did the same with the dove bar. Then I got a large bowl out and added 1 cup each of the washing soda and the borax.
You will probably have a lot of both the borax and and washing soda left over. Good for you. If you don’t use borax for many other household uses just save it for the next time you make this soap!
Here they are all mixed together. You can stop there…or add the Purex crystals. I was going to stop there but when I was looking at the crystals in wal-mart and deciding not to get them. That would add about $4 to the price of this detergent! A customer walked by and saw me studying the bottle and said, “Oh, that stuff is amazing. Have you ever tried it! It is wonderful!”


Ok, so I am a sucker for personal recommendation. Into the cart it went!
I got the smaller bottle which was $3.97. Not a terrible price to try something out.
I did find a facebook coupon for $1 off here, after I got back. Guess I should have been more prepared.

So I added a cup of that to the mix and was surprised the all the color!

This is after making several batches. I think I did 4 but I should have counted.
Check out the containers I got at a thrift store. They were $6 and NOT on sale but I was a sucker and really liked them. I need to make another label for the new soap. I added a hook using a paperclip and it works great to hold my 1/8 cup scoop that I use for measuring.
If you have a front loading washer you can get by with just 1 tablespoon. Also this is perfectly safe for HE washers. The problem with normal soap is it suds to much for the low water volume of the he washers. This stuff cleans but without a lot of suds. Making it perfect to replace the money making scheming HE detergent makers =)
I didn’t get a picture of the liquid detergent that I have but here is the new and the old powder.

It is a lot. I mean, when you only use a few Tablespoons think how long this stuff will last me. I think I might end up mixing them to make the Purex last longer. We shall see.









So here is a break down of cost:
Per batch:

Washing soda: 1 cup = 4 cents
Borax:            1 cup = 3.5 cents
Fels-Nelpha    1/2 cup= 48 cents.
Dove soap     1/2 cup = 9 cents
Purex crystals 1 Cup = 96 Cents
Total cost for 1 batch = $5.57 for 64 loads- Or about 9 cent per load.
Wow the Purex really adds to the cost!

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