Homemade Laundry Soap Directions and Tips

 

To enjoy the Vacation Education lifestyle, it takes time and money. Making money takes time and energy too. To help my family earn our way to free time and vacation education, I like to find ways to NOT spend the money we have worked so hard to earn. Making laundry soap is one of those projects that pays for itself over and over again. 

I invested $17 in these two items, Washing Soda and Borax. That was nearly five years ago. I have made enough laundry detergent to do laundry for our family and still have lots of these ingredients left for years to come. We do about 15 loads of laundry per week for comparison. (This seems excessive to me, so I am looking for ways to reduce this, but for now my best strategy is to save on the soap itself) You can DIY this laundry soap too. There are lots of variations of this recipe on the internet since making laundry soap was made popular by the Duggars tv show.

I can get a bar of Fels-Naptha at my local grocer for about $1. Walmart has them for $1.20 currently. 

This recipe was first shared with me about twenty years ago by another mom, but she was using a powdered version made famous by the Duggars. After many years and lots of trial and error, I have come up with a recipe and method that works well and is fairly simple to make.

You will need the following: (to make 5 gallons of laundry soap)

1/2 cup Super Washing Soda

1/4 cup Borax

1/2 Fels-Naptha Bar

Lots of water

**Note: You can double these ingredients, doubling the water required at each step to make more at once. But, this makes five gallons, which is about all I can store at a time. If you double everything you will get 10 gallons of laundry detergent, and that is great if you have room for it.

Step 1. Grate Fels-Naptha bar and combine with 2 cups hot water in a saucepan. Heat on stove, stirring, until dissolved.

Step 2. Put 1.25 gallons of hot water into a container. Slowly stir the soapy mix into the bucket of hot water.

**Note: How you do this depends on how much you are making and what containers are available. I have two 1.5 gallon tubs with lids (I got them for 50cents each from the bakery at Walmart - they used to hold frosting). I follow step 2 & 3 in one of these buckets. I tried to commandeer a 5 gallon bucket my husband has with a tap on the bottom (it's for making beer), but I got a firm NO.

Step 3. Slowly stir in 1/2 cup washing soda and 1/4 cup Borax to the bucket

**Note: Because of the containers I use, I next pour half of the mix into the second bucket so that each bucket is half full. Then, when I add the water in step 4, I fill up each of my buckets.

Step 4. Add another 1.25 gallons of hot water and stir.

Step 5. cover and leave overnight. 

**Note: I have skipped the leaving overnight and had fine results. I do laundry on Saturdays. It is usually on laundry day that I realize I need laundry soap, so I make it and use it right away. Most of the versions of this recipe suggest waiting so there may be some benefit to that but I'm not sure what it is except to thicken the mixture as the chemicals interact. You could start the process in the morning and do the next steps in the evening as an alternative to waiting overnight also.

** Stinky-ness Note: This is a good point to add any scents/perfumes if you like them. Many of us are accustomed to having our clean clothes smell like something. If you like your clothes to smell like something, then you can use scented dryer sheets or add a liquid softener to the wash or add an essential oil to the soap itself. I am trying lavender in this batch to see if we like it.

Step 6: Fill laundry dispenser half way with soap mix, and add hot water to fill it the rest of the way. I have saved plastic laundry soap containers for this purpose (before I had mastered making it myself, we bought it from the store). I use a funnel to reduce mess. The smaller buckets are helpful here. 

**Note: I know a few moms who make theirs in a five-gallon bucket to begin with and then just scoop it from the bucket for each load. My washer and dryer are in a hallway so I don't have room for a five-gallon bucket here. I prefer using the smaller dispensers and storing them in my basement, and then bringing them up to the laundry area one at a time, but it's important to use what you have and work in the space you're in. Don't try to buy special containers for this project.

Lastly, if you've made it this far and are wondering what laundry soap has to do with homeschooling. There is a great science lesson as well as an economic lesson to be had in doing this project alongside your children.