Homemade Laundry Soap

About the time I started making my own baby wipes I also found a recipe for homemade laundry soap. If your anything like our family then you know how expensive laundry soap is. Especially when you leave the clothes in the washer for to long and have to re-wash them like I am known for doing lol. Anyways there are a lot of laundry soap recipes online but I chose to use the one that the Duggar family uses. I figured they probably wash nore clothes than any other family so they should have a pretty good recipe lol. I was a little hesitant at first that the clothes wouldnt get clean, or wouldnt smell good but they really do. John has very sensitive skin so he was worried that he may break out or something but we have been using it for about 2 months now and its going great. When I calculated how much we were saving in one year just from making it ourself I was shocked. You can buy all the stuff you need at walmart for under $7.00 and if my calculations are correct then you should have enough to make soap for one whole year before you need to buy the supplies again. $7 per year as opposed to $12 every 2 weeks....can't beat that!! I had to make my second batch of soap yesterday so I thought I would document it for anyone who wants to save money and make their own soap.

What you will need:

-5 Gallon Bucket w/ lid

-Hot Tap Water

-1 cup of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Powder (you have to use the washing powder..baking soda will not work)

-1 bar of soap (I use Ivory because I got a bunch of it free from couponing)

-1/2 cup of borax

Directions:

-Grate bar of soap

-Add 4 cups of hot tap water and grated soap in a small pot and cook over medium heat until all soap is melted. You really need to stir it the entire time.

-Fill your 5 gallon bucket half way full with hot tap water

-Add in melted soap, borax and super washing powder to your 5 gallon bucket. Stir until all powder is disolved.

-Fill bucket to the top with more hot water

-Cover the 5 gallon bucket and let sit overnight to settle.

I saved a few old laundry soap containers and I go ahead and fill them up when the soap is ready. If you want you can add some lavendar oil while you are melting the soap if you want your soap to have a stronger smell. I just use fabric softener and to me they smell great :)