Homemade Laundry Soap Recipe

"This is the liquid version of a recipe I found on a blog back in 2009 and did a simple copy/paste/print. I have no idea who to credit but the recipe is all over the internet these days. I started using it early 2010 and have been using it ever since. I still use bleach or occassionally Oxi-Clean on the whites but other than that, this mixture gets our clothes clean and has saved us a fortune in detergent costs. I can whip up a batch and have the entire mess cleaned up in less than thirty minutes. Also, one batch will last us approximately three months and we average about five loads of laundry per week. I've been asked about using this mixture in HE washers and I can't confirm as we have a standard top loading machine but if you do a little googling you might be able to find out if it will work for you."

Original is 450 servings

Metric US

I've Tried It

Ingredients

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1/3 bar Fels Naptha
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax powder

2 gallon bucket (minimum size)

Nutritional

Serving Size: 1 (0.3 g)
Calories 1.2
Total Fat - 0 g
Saturated Fat - 0 g
Cholesterol - 0 mg
Sodium - 0.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate - 0.3 g
Dietary Fiber - 0 g
Sugars - 0.2 g
Protein - 0 g
Calcium - 0.1 mg
Iron - 0 mg
Vitamin C - 0.1 mg
Thiamin - 0 mg

Step by Step Method

Step 1

Grate the soap and put it in a medium pot. I grate the entire bar at the same time and divide it among baggies and save for future use. I also use my food processor for this and it works fine but be cautioned...if you do this make sure to wash your bowl IMMEDIATELY! Fels Naptha has an "aroma" that can be left behind in your food processor bowl. Trust me...don't soak your bowl...wash it and rinse thoroughly right away!

Step 2

Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts.

Step 3

Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved.

Step 4

Remove from heat.

Step 5

Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket.

Step 6

Now add your soap mixture and stir.

Step 7

Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir.

Step 8

Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will turn to a thick gel. I keep a spare, handy size laundry jug on hand and a whisk on top of my bucket. When I need to refill my laundry jug I whisk what's in the bucket to blend thoroughly. Then I pour what I need in to my laundry jug. Before adding detergent to the laundry I give the jug a couple of good shakes to make sure it's well blended.

Step 9

Use 1/2 cup per load.

Step 10

Because this is now our only detergent I took the time to calculate how much of each ingredient I would need to keep on hand so I didn't run out of one ingredient or the other. According to my calculations, keep on hand at all times, 2 boxes of Washing Soda, 1 Box of Borax and 8 Bars of Fels Naptha for approximately 22 full recipes.