Homemade Laundry Detergent WOW!

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a blog called Why Not Sew?  Erin had a recipe listed for making your own laundry detergent. I was really excited to see her recipe because it was for a small amount only 2 gallons of homemade detergent. Most blogs have you making 5 gallons. I only had enough bottles saved to make 3-4 gallons.  I was able to take her recipe for 2 gallons and turn it into 3 as recommended by Jill from One Good Thing By Jillee.

I can’t tell you how excited I was to give this recipe a try. The reviews were so good and the money you save is so incredible that I knew making the small initial investment could be well worth it.

What made me initially take notice of this recipe was my last shopping trip for laundry detergent. I was almost out so I decided to get another bottle at Wal-Mart. A large bottle of Tide was coming in at almost $18 a bottle at our local grocery store that same bottle was almost $21. WOWOWOWOW that is crazy!! I can go through that bottle in about two weeks.  I know when you see cents you think well that’s not too bad, but it is when you think about how many loads you may do a week or even in a month. I can normally wash 15 loads a week sometimes as many as 20. Add the fabric softener, and any stain fighters to that it can become hefty in a years’ time. I was paying over $500 a year in detergent alone!! With this recipe I would be looking at $35.00 a year for the detergent.

So how does it work?? It was fantastic! Actually I think it works better than the laundry detergent I was using before. My clothes not only smell better but they look cleaner in general. One thing I was noticing before I made this homemade detergent was our towels never really smelled that great. They didn’t smell bad, but they didn’t smell as clean as I would have liked them to be considering you are rubbing them on your clean wet body after a shower. After using the homemade detergent the towels smelled so fresh even my husband said they smelled good. Humm looks like we made the correct decision to switch.

I made a mistake by using a bar of Zote verses a bar of bath soap and ended up with a huge disaster on my hands instead of 3-5 gallons of detergent I ended up with 10 gallons of detergent. I had to run to the hardware store and buy a 5 gallon buckets to make it all work. Unbenounced to me I was actually making the Duggar Family Recipe you know the family with something like 19 kids! HOLY COW! So with that being said I  think I will have enough laundry detergent for almost 1 year costing me about .02 cent per gallon! 

I didn’t add step by step pictures as I made the detergent because I was in a bit of a hurry at my last minute decision to make the detergent at midnight, but I will capture them next time. In the mean time you can see EXCELLENT step by step picture directions by Why Not Sew? CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PIC's

Ingredients:

• 1 bar of bath soap ( like Dove or Ivory) If you are looking for a larger quantity visit the Duggar Family (This is the one I ended up using)
• 1 cup of Borax
• 1 cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (Not baking soda)
• 3-1 gallon jugs
• Large Stew or Gumbo pot
• 1 cheese grater
• 1 large spoon
• 1 funnel
• Essential Oils (Optional)

Directions: (Click here for picture steps by Erin)

1. Grate the soap with a cheese grater, then add to a large pot.
2. To the pot add one gallon of water
3. Cook until the grated soap melts down and stir well
4. Add the Borax, and Super Washing Soda, then bring to a bowl continue to stir.
5. You will notice the detergent coagulating right away
6. Add additional 2 gallons of cold water to the pot and stir well. 
7. Divide the detergent between three 1 gallon jugs
8. *optional* Add 10 drops of essential oils to each gallon, close then gently shake the bottle to mix

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