Homemade Laundry Soap

How to Make

• 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.