Pin Win! Laundry Soap

I am currently about halfway through our second batch of this homemade laundry soap, which I found on Pinterest. I'm going to copy and paste the recipe here for you, but to give credit where it is due, you should check out the blog where it originated. 

It's basic, homemade laundry soap, and it does cost a little up front to make it, but it lasts forever! I have a big family of 6 (all of whom are now over 10 years old) and it lasts us months and months. I wasn't sure how good it was at first-- it's hard to really measure something like this, but my laundry comes out clean and smells good, so I'm going with WIN!! 

I really struggled with only using one or two tablespoons per load, but it does seem to be sufficient. Who knew? 

Here's the recipe:

From the "Being Creative to Keep My Sanity" blog

You will need everything pictured above, (three bars of Fels-Naptha) and a bucket or large container to mix it all in. The Fels-Naptha soap is available at WalMart (along with everything else) and I use my Kitchenaid grater attachment to grate it up, but you can do it by hand just as easily. My kids always ask me, "Mom, why are you putting cheese in the laundry?!" Yeah, yeah...

1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (1.81 kg) found in the cooking isle

1  box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle

3 bars of Fels-Naptha soap, found in the detergent isle (if you use Zote bars use 2 bars instead, Zote can be found at Home Depot)

2 small containers of Oxy Clean or store brand Oxy Clean (try to get about 3.5 lbs total (1.58 kg) found in the detergent isle. (this is optional, I added it into mine because I have pretty messy kids and the cleaner the better)

You should be able to find all of these items at your grocery store.

**Use 1-2 Tablespoons per load. I know that does not seem like enough but this recipe does not have fillers like the store bought detergent so you only need 1-2 Tablespoons.**

This detergent is fairly mild smelling, it is not over powering. If you love a strong scent you may have to add a fabric softener or laundry crystals to each load. You can find laundry crystals in the detergent isle.

Also from the "Being Crafty"-- looks like cheese!!

Start out by grating your Fels-Naptha soap just like cheese. You can use a food processor or just use your hand held grater, what ever you have. Those of you with an HE washer may want to run the mix through the grater again to get an even finer mix.
**Don't worry the Fels-Naptha will dissolve in your washer even if you only use cold water like me.**

Toss all ingredients in a 5 gallon bucket lined with a garbage bag. This part makes your whole house smell great. Once everything is mixed store soap however you like.

I store mine in an empty store-detergent-brand bucket on my dryer. You could be all fancy and put it in a glass jar like she does on the website, but I'm a very practical gal and a bucket I already had was much less hassle (and less cost) than trying to find something cute and glass that is likely to be knocked on the floor and broken anyway. 

She has some excellent FAQ & tips on her blog, if you have any other questions. For me, it works, and this is my best Pinterest WIN to date. So happy to be saving as much money as I am by making this soap.

I plan to make her dishwasher detergent sometime in the future, when we get the little door thingy on our soap dispenser replaced. Currently, we have to use the hard soap pellets so they will drop when it opens, since it doesn't open all the way. Hugely expensive, so I need to get on that, then I'll let you know how the dishwasher soap works for me. OR, you could make it, use it and let ME know!