Homemade Laundry Soap

There are many different recipes out there for laundry soaps, both liquid and dry. This is what I have found to work best.

INGREDIENTS:
Soap; I usually use 1/6 bar Fels-Naptha, but I've also used regular bar soap (1/3 bar), and liquid (1/2 cup) castile soap.
1/2 cup Baking Soda
1/2 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup White Vinegar (Optional, vinegar acts as a natural stain remover, water softener, and fabric softener)
1 tablespoon Grease fighting dish soap (like Dawn or Method)
Water
a couple drops Essential oil (optional for scent)

TIME TO COMPLETE: Prep, 15 minutes. Cooking, 30 minutes

First of all, you need a good storage container. I've seen other people use 5 gallon buckets, but I find I don't have a big enough pot to make that much at a time, and they take up too much space for my little house. I use the large juice containers with the thick handles, or the big Arizona iced tea containers. They are both about the same size, really easy to store on my shelf, and easy to pour without making a mess.

Start boiling water in a large stock pot, so it will already be boiling once your ingredients are ready to go in. ***You noticed I didn't put an amount on the water, because I usually eyeball it, but if you are only making one batch you want at least 2 cups less water than it will take to fill your storage container. You can use a little more for bigger batches but its not necessary, since you will just top them off with water to finish filling the containers after you are done cooking it.

With the bar soap I start by marking out sizes. If I'm using the Fels-Naptha I take a knife and mark the edge at equal distances into 6 sections (each section becomes one batch of soap). If I'm using a hand-sized bar of soap I divide into 3 sections. If I use liquid castile I measure out a 1/2 cup per batch I'm making (often I make a double or triple batch to save myself time later). Once I have measured the dry soap, I use the small side of my cheese grater to grate the soap as fine as possible.

Pre-measure out each of the other ingredients so they are ready to add to your mixture as you cook it.

And then the hard part (not really, just make sure you stay by the stove the whole time, this is one recipe you REALLY cannot leave alone for a second, unless you want a huge mess - I know this from experience, I didn't think I'd ever get all the soap off the walls and floors the first time I made this).  Make sure the water is at a hard boil and you have a large wooden spoon ready for stirring. Start with the grated soap adding a little bit at a time, stirring each time you add a little more and watching to be sure it melts. If you add the soap too fast it can get clumpy, it doesn't effect the detergent's usefulness, but it's not as pretty ;) After the soap, follow the rest of the ingredients one at a time, adding only small amounts and taking time to stir well, each ingredient addition can make the mixture start to bubble over, so I'm going to stress again...go SLOW. This whole part of the process usually takes me between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on how cautious I'm being. The more cautious the less clean up time it take though, so pick your poison.

Once the mixture is cooked pour in to your storage container. I always make sure mine is already sitting in my sink, so if some spills over its no biggie. If there is still space in the storage bottle fill the rest of the way with cold tap water, cap it, and give it a good shake. Ingredients can separate some in storage so just make sure you shake before each use. I find that 1/4 cup will do a supersize load of laundry for us. This is HE and diaper safe. Adjust measurements as you find necessary.

This recipe can also be used to make a powdered laundry soap. Just use grated soap (instead of choosing a liquid castile), mix in with the rest of the dry ingredients (skip the dish soap, water, vinegar, and essential oil), mix well, store in a container with a tight lid so moisture doesn't get into it. Use a tablespoon or so per load of wash.


As I said before I generally make a triple batch of this at one time. For my family of 6 (with 2 in cloth diapers) one bottle lasts me a month. I hope that gives you a good idea about how long it will last for you, and how long your ingredients will last. I haven't yet done out the math for how much each load cost me, but I can guestimate it is in the single digit pennies.

Have fun saving money :)