Coming soon on high demand: Homemade Laundry Detergent

There has been a HUGE demand for Homemade Laundry Detergent. I've been holding off because as you can tell, I like to post step by step pictures of the process to help people along. The "problem" is that I made a batch 2 months ago and I'm not even a quarter of the way through it yet. I guess that's not really a "problem"...but it does pose an issue when my Laundry Detergent Container doesn't have enough room for another batch. That means I can't do pics...YET.



So I've decided to post JUST the recipe for now. I'll make another post to include pictures as soon as possible.



Here it is. The ever popular, insanely high in demand and biggest money saver to date:



Homemade Laundry Detergent (safe for front AND top load washers!)

Ingredients:

- 1/3 Bar Fels Naptha

- 1/2 Cup WASHING (not baking) Soda

- 1/2 Cup Borax

- Water

2 gallon Bucket for making

Similar sized container with a top for storage (I use an empty 150 oz Tide container)



Directions:

Grate soap & put in sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat until soap melts (stir as it melts). Add washing Soda & Borax and stir until it dissolves. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups HOT water into the. Add soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon + 6 cups water and stir. Let sit 24hours. It will gel up some but it won't be as thick as a store brand detergent...that's ok! Use 1/2 cup for a top load washer and 1/3 cup for a frong load washer.

*Optional: Add 1oz essential oil to scent. I did this with lavender oil and to be honest...it didn't add anything to the detergent and just drove up the cost (.5oz costs $7!!!). The fels naptha has a very nice scent to it so I don't bother with the oils anymore.



Cost Break Down

Tide

150oz Tide: $17.50 >.12cents per ounce> about 6oz per load > .70cents per load



Miller Brand:

Fels Naptha: $1.09 per bar > .36cents per batch

Washing Soda : $3.57 per 55oz box > .25cents per batch

Borax: $4.51 per 76oz box > .23cents per batch

Water: Free

Each Batch Costs .86cents to make.

Each Batch makes roughly 2.5 gallons of detergent (that's enough for 80-120 loads of laundry depending on if you're using a front or top loader)

END COST: .01-.007cents per load





Nuff said :)



I don't know about you-- but that gives me warm and fuzzy feelings









P.S. Since I'm not able to post pictures right now, feel free to leave comments with any questions you have!