Laundry Soap Adventure

I hate spending anywhere from $9.95 to $17.99 for a jug of laundry detergent that never seems to last very long. Several of my friends on facebook and at work had spoken of making their own, but I thought, "Wow that sounds like a lot of effort and surely it doesn't work as well."


I was wrong. This was super easy to do, it works really well, and is really cheap. I figure the entire 1st batch costs less than $5 for 10 gallons of detergent.
Step 1: Start with a bar of non-scented soap. I bought Fels-Naptha from the grocery store, but you can also use Ivory soap or any other soap without moisturizers or perfumes (which will stain your clothes.) Use a cheese grater or food processor to grate the bar of soap into tiny pieces.

My son thought this looked like cheese. After I got the bar grated, we had to take a break and actually eat some cheese.

Step 2: Fill a soup pot with 4 cups of tap water and add the grated soap. Heat over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the soap dissolves and you have a sort of "soap soup". This took several minutes and during this time I had to help my son use the potty, clean up the cheese snack, and start up an episode of "Dora the Explorer" on the DVR.

Step 3: Fill an EMPTY, clean five-gallon bucket half full with hot water. Add 1 cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, 1/2 cup of Borax, and the "soap soup" mixture to the bucket. Stir until all the powder is dissolved. (note: the recipe I was following noted several times that you had to use "super washing soda" and not to use "baking soda". I have a friend that says she replaces the super washing soda with generic oxyclean and it works well.) I got the 5 gallon bucket with lid, the borax, and the super washing soda at our local hardware store.

My son helped stir the pot. It was pretty foamy and had a strong scent. At one point he looked at me and said, "Is this puke, mommy?"

Step 4: Fill the bucket the rest of the way with hot water and stir well. Cover and let sit overnight. This will form a gel-like substance. Stir well to eliminate as many clumps as possible. It will be very "gloopy".

Step 5: Fill a clean, empty laundry detergent container with half water and half soap mixture. This is easier said than done and I ended up with quite a mess. After speaking with my friends they all suggested getting a large kitchen or automotive funnel for the container and pouring from a liquid measuring cup. Noted for next time. Because I am math-minded, I actually filled my entire laundry container up with water first and poured it out to measure that my jug held approx. 13 cups of fluid. So I added 6 cups of water and 6 cups of soap goop to my jug.

Instructions for use: BEFORE EACH USE SHAKE YOUR JUG as it will gel. Add a little over 1/2 cup to your load of clothes for a standard top-loading washing machine. The lid of my jug holds 1/4 cup, so I add two capfulls. You could also add 1/4 cup straight from your undiluted 5 gal bucket if you wish.

This recipe comes from the Dugger Family of TV fame. If you google "Dugger Family Recipes" you will find this and several other similar recipes. They recommend adding 5 - 10 drops of essential oil to each gallon to add a scent to the detergent if you prefer.

I am very pleased with the results. Our clothes are just as clean as with store-bought detergent. The clean laundry doesn't smell like ANYTHING which is our family preference. All of the supplies (including the soap, washing soda, borax, AND 5 gal bucket) cost about $20, but next time I will only have to by a bar of soap since I used just a small bit of the huge boxes of powder. I figure the whole batch costs less than 5 bucks. It took me about 20 minutes to make the batch including the little stops I made to take care of my little guy.

You should do this!

It is worth it!