Homemade Laundry Detergent

This is not the first time I have made laundry detergent. Scratch that, yes it is. Josh made the first batch and I just claimed it, when I in fact did nothing but shop for the ingredients. It's not my fault though, I can't help it he is just as thrifty as I am and wanted to try his hand at saving us some cash. I found this on Pinterest, but it actually sent me to another blog Why Not Sew but I will post the recipe so you don't have to start clicking away, unless you just want to! :-)

Here's what you need:

• 1 Bar of Soap 
• 1 Cup of Borax
• 1 Cup of Washing Soda (or baking soda, read below!) 
• A pot that holds up to 2 gallons
• A grater
• A funnel
• A long spoon
• 2 empty gallon jugs

You want me to be completely honest? When I read washing soda and I was like "What the heck is that...?" I searched all over Walmart and could not find it. It's supposed to be in the laundry detergent aisle but after checking with an employee turns out they were fresh out. (My luck!..Monroeville's Walmart, duh!) But I happened to run into a friend that has tried this several time and she says that baking soda worked find when she did it. I even checked online to see the difference, and several site said how different they were but I took the risk and tried it. It worked just fine the first time, so I'm assuming it will this time as well! So, if you can't find washing soda, you can substitute it with baking soda.

So, here we go! 

Grate your bar of soap: Since Josh did this the first time, I was expecting mine to turn out like his, turns out mine was better! His left clumps of soap floating around the bottle when it was done. (More on that below!) I just used a bar of Irish Springs soap, you can literally use whatever kind you want. Just be aware that what you use, that's what your clothes will most likely smell like. It does not have a strong smell but you still smell the scent. 

Fill one gallon jug with water and pour into pot with grated soap. Cook until the grated soap dissolves. I don't have a pot that I keep in the house that holds 2 gallons. I had to sneak out to the shed and see if I could find one. I think when Josh made it, he actually did it on a propane gas thing-a-ma-bob. (You know what I'm saying, right?) So I found the big pot that he uses for that (thing-a-ma-bob) I figured it would work on my stove just fine, which it did! Above I made the comment that Josh's batch had soap pieces floating around in it. I figured out why, because he's a man and has no patience whatsoever! Apparently he just didn't let it sit long enough. I just turned it on and let it go, occasionally stirring it. When all I saw was bluish water, I moved onto the next step. 

Add 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Washing Soda, bring to a boil and let it coagulate. 

Stir occasionally...I let it boil for about 5-10 minutes....

Turn off the heat, and add another gallon of room temperature water. 

I had a lot of suds with mine, I let it sit for a while and let them die down a little and let the detergent cool off before pouring them in jugs.

When you think it's cooled off enough use your funnel to pour in your detergent...

Viola! You use about half a cup per load, I use a little more for my larger loads. This is enough to last well over 2 months, maybe longer. I can't remember how long it lasted the last time, exactly. This saves on money BIG TIME because when you buy the Borax and Washing Soda it helps makes several batches of detergent!