Homemade Laundry Detergent

A few weeks ago,

the discussion of laundry detergent came up

with the book clubbers

(yes, we DO talk about other things...

hehe actually if you sat in on any of our conversations, 

you'd have no idea we were a book club!).

A few of us began making our own 

and were swapping recipes

(recipes sounds weird, but I don't really know 

what else to call it).

I use a liquid/gel recipe that I 

found on the internet and tweeked to my liking.

I was due to make some soon after that, 

so here you are...

You'll need:

1 cup of Borax

1 cup of Washing Soda

1 bar of Fels Naptha

Water

Five Gallon Bucket

Shred the Fels Naptha into a stock pot

with three quarts of water and let simmer until soap is melted.

Add in one cup of Washing Soda and

one cup of Borax and stir until dissolved.

 It should look a little something like this.

Pour two quarts of water into the five gallon bucket

and then add your soap mixture and stir.

Then add two gallons and three quarts of water and

stir very well.

Once mixed very well, 

place the lid on it and 

let it sit for about 24 hours.

It should gel within in this time

and then it's ready to use.

This recipe usually lasts (for us) around six months,

and gets our clothes cleaner and fresher

than any detergent I've ever used before.

And the savings is nice, too:

Fels Naptha $1.12

Washing Soda 55 oz. $2.99/ 8 oz. $.43ish

Borax 76 oz. $3.99/ 8 oz. $.42ish

Less than $2.00,

yep, it's worth the 24-hour gel period for me.

There are lots of recipes out there on the old world wide web,

so check them out and find one that works for you.