How to Make Laundry Soap (finally)

So many people have been asking me how to make laundry soap since I have given lots of it away in recent months.  I have promised to get this on here for many days.  The road blocks I have encountered have been just short of comical.  It is so easy and so affordable.  I never see myself buying laundry soap from the store again.  Many thanks to my sister Alison for sharing this recipe with me this past summer.  The cost is about .01 cent a load!  Not only that, but it cleans your clothes just as good as name brand detergents. So here is how it is done.

This is the list of ingredients you will need to make the laundry soap: 1/2 cup of washing soda (NOT baking soda), 1/2 cup of Borax and 2 oz of any soap you like.  I use Fels Naptha, but any soap will due.  All of these ingredients can be found in the laundry aisle.  Fels Naptha can be hard to find, but in my opinion works and smells the best (it is also the best pretreater for stains I have found).  I have also used Lava and Ivory.

Measure out all the ingredients and place in a blender to combine.  If you don't have a blender, try to shave the soap as fine as possible and just mix together with the other ingredients.  You are done if you are making powdered laundry soap.  All you use is 1 tablespoon per load. I advise putting it in some container that can be shook up before using, because the ingredients may separate.  This gives you 32 loads.  If you want to make liquid soap, keep reading.  The liquid gives you 64 loads with no more cost to you!

To continue to make liquid laundry soap, add your blended soap mixture to 6 cups of water.  Bring to a boil.  Let boil for 15 minutes.  Keep your eye on the mixture and stir periodically.  It has a tendency to boil over if you do not keep a close eye on it. Remove from heat.

Next, add 1 quart of hot water to a bucket.  Add the hot mixture to the hot water and stir.  Add enough cold water to measure 2 gallons.  I use a 5 gallon bucket that I have marked off where 2 gallons is.  

Let the mixture sit for 24 hours.  It will turn into a gelatin like consistency.  I stir it up at this point and use a funnel to pour into cleaned out milk jugs.  Any gallon container works fine as long as it is cleaned out well.  You only need 1/2 cup per load.  This will give you 64 loads! I like to keep a liquid measuring cup by the washing machine to insure I get all 64 loads. 


I want to thank Makayla, my daughter, for taking the pictures for this really crabby mom who couldn't get anything to work out right this morning. Sorry for putting my bad day on you.   Also, once again I need to thank Katelyn for walking me through this over the phone.  I am so happy we finally connected.  Thanks for your huge doses of patience with me.  I laugh when I think about being the "techie" one in my family growing up because I knew how to get the clock to stop blinking on the VCR!  I love you my dear sweet daughters, you're the greatest!