Advantages of making your own laundry soap:
Huge savings - It costs only pennies per load!
Safe even for washing baby clothes!
No harsh chemicals!
No fragrance!
Easy!
Satisfying and fun!
After making homemade laundry soap in various ways (liquid, gel, and sauce), I found that this recipe is the most simple and it works very well at getting clothes clean and smelling good without any perfumy fragrance. Recently I made 15 gallons and it was a lot of fun.
4 cups or more of boiling water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar, shaved or shredded
1 cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
1/2 cup Mule Team Borax
5-gallon bucket
stick long enough for stirring contents of bucket
Boil the water while you grate the bar of soap and dissolve the soap completely while stirring often. This will be the most time-consuming part of the procedure but it will be worth the time.
When the soap is dissolved add the washing soda and Borax. Stir and dissolve.
Pour everything into a clean 5-gallon bucket. Rinse out the pan with hot water and dump into the bucket.
Fill the 5-gallon bucket with hot water. Stir well with a long stick. Cover and don't disturb for 24 hours. (This is hard when you first start making laundry soap but it is important!)
After 24 hours it will have formed into a gel. Stir well. It can be stored in smaller containers such as Tupperware or smaller buckets to be used on laundry day.
If you want fragrance, simply add a few drops of essential oils on wool dryer balls.
Caution: Always cover buckets of anything very tightly. A toddler could fall into a bucket of liquid or gel and drown so please take care and avoid tragedy.
