How to Make Homemade Laundry Soap

I’ve been using homemade laundry soap for years now. At first, I missed the smells of my store bought detergent but it didn’t take me long to get over that. Goodness, we have eight bodies worth of clothes, towels, etc. we’re washing a lot of clothes around here. I had to kiss the smell good-bye for the enormous savings of the homemade detergent. I still keep "regular" bought soap on hand for some of those really tough jobs, but I pretty much use the homemade stuff.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

What you need:

Water

1 bar Fels Naptha soap (or another of your choosing)

Washing soda

Borax

5 gallon bucket

Directions:

4 cups of hot tap water in a saucepan

Grate one bar of Fels-Naptha soap (you can use others but I’ve found this brand to work best). I buy it at the local hardware store.

Stir the soap in the water over medium-low heat until the soap is dissolved.

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Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water.

Add 1 cup of washing soda

Add ½ cup of Borax laundry booster

Add the bar soap mixture.

Stir until dissolved.

Fill the rest of the bucket full of hot tap water and stir until well blended.

Let set for 24 hours (it will kind of gel over).

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I have, more recently, used it full strength by just filling my soap containers with the detergent as is. However, in the past, I filled the containers halfway with the detergent and half water. This makes the detergent, of course, last longer, but I found it to be less effective diluted. You decide. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.