Sunday, April 7, 2013

How to make liquid laundry soap




I've seen tons of recipes and tutorials for homemade laundry soap. I started making my own about a year and a half ago. I've noticed recently that the ingredients for this soap at my local Walmart have been flying off the shelves. Awareness of how easy and cost effective this is has been spreading, which is great!
This detergent doesn't contain any extra chemicals, scents or dyes. With a few drops of essential oils, you could have a nice scented detergent, but we don't find it necessary in our house.
I use this on mine and Skub's clothes, Ivan's clothes and our cloth diapers. It works great for each one!
I will write out the instructions for how I make my soap, and I will also include a video, for those of you who don't enjoy reading. I won't take it personal, I promise.



You will need:
4 Tbs Washing Soda
2 Tbs Borax
1/4 bar of Fels Naptha soap
Water

Tools:
Small saucepan
Grater
Spoon
Large bucket with a lid
Tablespoon
Liquid measuring cup
Funnel
2 gallon sized containers with lids
Potato masher
Soup Ladle

Don't be intimidated by that list! Most of the tools are common kitchen utensils, nothing special. And of course like anything in life, if you don't have something (lets say a potato masher for example) you can always improvise! Maybe make this a cool project with the kids and let them use their hands!

Add one cup of HOT water to the small saucepan. Use the grater to grate the Fels Naptha soap into the hot water. About halfway through, place the saucepan on a burner and turn it to medium heat, and finish the grating.

Stir the soap frequently until ALL the chunks are dissolved. Take off heat and set aside.

Add 10 cups of HOT water into the large bucket, then add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir.

Pour the Fels Naptha into the large bucket and stir again.

Add 10 more cups of HOT water to the bucket, and stir a final time.

Place the cover on the bucket, and leave it sit overnight. Place it somewhere that it won't be disturbed.

In the morning, your bucket will contain a thick gel. Use the potato masher to break up the gel into small enough bits to fit through the funnel.

Using the funnel and a soup ladle, portion the detergent into the two gallon sized containers. They will each be about half full, maybe a little more.

Fill the remainder of the containers with HOT water, place the overs on them, and shake until the clumps once again form a consistent gel (maybe 3 minutes each.)

It really isn't as hard as it seems, and once you've tried it, it becomes so much easier. It should take about a fourth of a cup of homemade detergent per full load. For cloth diapers, it only takes about two tablespoons. I will never go back to buying detergent, which is outrageously up-priced. I hope this is helpful, and if I was unclear on any of the steps, or if you have questions, feel free to send a message!

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