Making your own laundry soap, or, housewife-ing it up 1800s style!

I've been more and more interested lately in making my own cleaning products. It's way cheaper and better for you. I started with laundry soap and have been using it now for about 2 weeks. I'm really happy with how it's working! It took a little getting used to but I can't believe how easy it is to make, and how inexpensive. I've been using white vinegar as fabric softener too, it works great!
Here's how I do it:

1) Start with these 3 ingredients: 20 mule team borax, arm and hammer washing soda (not baking soda, they're 2 different things) and a bar of fels naptha soap. I found all these things at the local Fred Meyer in the laundry detergent section.

2) Here's the hard goods you'll need, plus a pair of rubber gloves. I use my own designated bowl, grater, measuring cup, etc. for this because I don't want the chance of contaminating food. The white thing is a plastic container for keeping the laundry soap in when it's done.

3) Grate the whole bar of Fels Naptha soap with the small grating side of your grater into a bowl, using rubber gloves. This gets a little strong smelling so I like to have a window open near me. One bar will make 2 cups of gratings, which is what you want.

4) Add the Fels Naptha gratings to your airtight container (tupperware, jar, etc.), then measure in 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda. Shake well so ingredients are mixed.

That's it! Laundry soap! You only need 2 tablespoons for a medium sized load, more or less depending on size of load. I just put this in when the water is running, before I add the clothes and make sure it's dissolved before I put the clothes in. For fabric softener, I use one of those Downy balls and put in a 1/4 cup of white vinegar. Make sure it's white though, you don't want to color your clothes! :) This stuff seems to last forever and is so worth it!

Recipe simplified:
2 cups finely grated Fels Naptha laundry bar soap
1 cup Arm and Hammer washing soda
1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax.

If you try this, let me know what you think! :)

Comments

[Betty]

That is so cool, Since we talked I have been using white vingar for our softener and you are right, it works great. I just might have to make my own soap also. Do you like the way it cleans your clothes?

[granolagirl]

Thanks for sharing. I am a believer in using natural products in my home as well! They work well and our less harmful to us and the environment.

[Amanda]

I do like the way it cleans clothes! I think the difference is, instead of detergent it's actually soap. Whites tend to look a tiny bit dingier but that's because they put optical brighteners in detergent. So really your whites aren't that white, they just look it. Soap is supposed to give clothes more of a deep clean and then rinses out, detergent kind of sticks around in your clothes. Dustin has a pair of these fleece pants that drive him nuts with static, and he's noticed since I started using these things they're hardly static-y at all. Weird, huh. I did all this research about laundry detergent and now I know more about it than I ever wanted to! Betty, I'll give you some of mine to try. :)

[Sheila]

This is great, i am going to try to find the ingrediants soon. How cool.. love natural products ...

[LeeAnn]

Hey! It was great you stopped by...thanks. I've been toying with the idea of making some soap - it was in another life and I'm eager to slip into the memory again. Thanks for inspiring!

[holly]

Very cool, Amanda! You come up with the greatest ideas!

[happy zombie]

I'm so glad you hopped over to my side of Oregon and visited my blog! I have been reading a lot about making laundry soap, but it seemed fussy and complicated. But now that I've seen your great tutorial... I think I can do it! Me thinks a trip to Freddie's is in order! Thank you, Amanda!

[happy zombie]

PS... I love your "housewife-ing it up 1800s style"!