Homemade Laundry Soap.

 We are all trying to save a buck or two these days, and even more if we can, and so I have recently found something that I think I can do to help save some moneys. I did a quick look on Amazon and found this 1 gallon of Laundry Soap and realized that is way too much money to spend and have decided to
make my own for much less.
First what you need is a bar of this soap, Fels-Naptha, without looking up a translation I think it means "Good Sleep" and costs about a dollar for a 5.5 ounce bar. I got at Walmart in the laundry isle.

Take this bar and grate it up good, it looks kinda like cheese so keep an eye on your kids and others that like cheese, and if they are persistent keep a camera handy for their reaction.

 Now this recipe is derived from one that makes 5 gallons, and so to make it easier to handle we are making just a single gallon, we will divide the grated soap into 5 groups of about 1.1 ounce each.

 I am storing the rest in separate baggies for next time.

 Now what you need is some Washing Soda, not baking soda, not Grape Soda, but washing soda, it is sold next to the Fels-Naptha soap. This is less than $4 (okay, I just went and dug up the receipt and it cost $3.24) and is way more than you need for one batch.

 Next you need some Borax, not Boron or Exlax, you know remember the old 20 Mule Team stuff, they have updated the box.

 It used to look like this, This is also sold next to the Washing Soda, and Fels-Naptha, for less than $4 I think, the day we bought the other ingrediants they were out and I think have change the box even more, and we had some left over from a different use, borax has tons of uses look it up. And like the Washing soda, you will have plenty to make many more batches.







So, what we do now is take a cup and a half (that's 1 and 1/2 cups) of each and combine them in a container and mix them up until good and blended.










Since we need to use a fifth of this also I weighed the total, and then divided by five and...

got something like 4.85 ounces, this was just about two heaping 1/4 cup measuring cups of soda/borax mixture. I just left this all in an old cool-whip container and wrote on the lid how much was needed instead of dividing up into baggies, just because it seems to be better, and the extrea Fels-Naptha baggies store nicely in the container.

Now comes that hard part, take 2 cups of water...

 Bring to a boil. (I found an old cooking thing at a second hand store to do this cooking, just in case there was a soapy residue left over)

 Add your portion of about 1.1 ounces of Fels-Naptha and...

Stir until dissolved, about a minute.

When that is dissolved, add 1/5 of the Borax/Washing Soda mixture, and stir until dissolved.

Since I am using an old Nursery Water jug to hold my soap, and I can't find my funnel, I have decided to pour it into a measuring cup to let cool a little until I poured it into the jug as to not melt the jug.

Next, you need to add some more water (hot tap will do), to about half way, and put the lid on it and shake it up real good.

Let it set and cool until it becomes a gelatinous blob. This could take all day over night, or as for me in about an hour and half to two hours it set up.

You can see here...

 and here.

Now what you want to do is Shake it up real good again, and then add water (hot I think) until you have a gallon total. Then shake it up until well blended.

I took this picture more for the clock, and you may be able to that I opened the lid and it was hot and foamy and made a mess so you may want to not fill it up as full as I did.

Now for use, I found out that 1/4 cup is what you need for a heavy soiled load.

 Add it like you normally do, or in a different way if you forget how you normally do it.

I attached the 1/4 cup measurer to the jug by a long rubber band to measure out next time, not pictured here, I hope my wife doesn't miss it.

Now take a nap.












As a disclaimer, The washing machine is not included with this recipe, the dirty laundry is, but you may have to come and pick it up and then return when washed and dried and folded. Also I found this recipe on the internets elsewhere, actually at THe happy housewife website, and there are some other fun stuffs there.
And pps, if you are interested in trying this soap out before trying to make it yourself and you live nearby, ask, I have supplies to make 4 more gallons of it and would be glad to get others impressions of how the soap works for them.
And PPSS, The happy house wife points out that this costs about 4 cents a load.
And PPSSPP, This is good for hE machines, since it does not suds up like other soaps, and is still good for ye olde washing machines, just don't expect alot of bubbles.