Being a family of 6, four of who are girls, there is always lotsa laundry. I am always looking for ways to save a few bucks, so I tried my hand at making homemade laundry soap. I invested in a box of Borax, a box of Arm & Hammer So Clean Washing Soap and a bar of Sunlight soap.
The original investment was about $10 and I have used the same boxes of soap for over a year. The soap works well on the laundry. It only takes a few minutes to make and a batch lasts for awhile...depending on how much laundry you have to do.
HOMEMADE LAUNDRY SOAP
1/3 bar of Fels Naptha or 1 bar of Ivory or Sunlight soap
1/2 cup washing soap
1/2 cup Borax powder
1 large bucket or pot (approx. 2 gallons)
Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load.
You will get about 64 loads of laundry from 1 batch. The finished soap will not be a solid gel. It will be more of a watery gel that has been accurately described as an "egg noodle soup" look. Sometimes mine is a little more of a firmer gel than other times. I'm not sure what I do that makes it different. It is also a low sudsing soap so you won't see suds or bubbles. It says wait for about 24 hours. Well...depending on how desperate I am for soap, I don't always wait that long and it still seems to work o.k.
Thanks to http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com for the tried and tested recipe.
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