Seeking Advice on Laundry Soap

Hi K.,

I too am interested in making my own laundry detergent to save money. I got the recipe below from one of my fav websites: www.debtproofliving.com. I recently found Fels Naptha bar soat at Meijer in the laundry aisle however, I've been able to find the super washing soda online only.

To Create own laundry detergent: combine 1 grated cup Fels Naptha soap , 1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, 1/2 cup Borax. Use 3 Tablespoons per load. Store in spill proof container to store all.

Here's my recipe and it works great for me. Please note that all homemade laundry soaps work best with softer water. This recipe, you need to use warm water. It's from "Green Up your Clean Up" by Jill Potvin Schoff.

1/8 cup liquid soap (I use Dr Bronner's Castile)
1 tablespoon of washing soda (Arm & Hammer-I buy this from biggs)
1/4 cup vinegar (for the rinse cycle)

Increase the washing soda if your water is particularly hard. For very dirty loads, add oxygen (non-chlorine) bleach.

I have made my own laundry soap, and in fact need to whip some up now. I went with the powder type since it was so much easier to make and store. The websites I found said that you could use Ivory or Fels Naptha. The Ivory didn't dissolve very well for me, but the Fels Naptha worked great. It was hard to find though; I finally found a place online that would ship it for free.

I use 1 bar Fels Naptha, 1 c Borax, and 1 c Washing Soda. I grate the Fels Naptha in my food processor then use the regular food processor blade to get it really small. We use 2 T per load, but I tend to run big loads since I'm lazy. The only things is that I've heard it isn't good on cloth diapers, but it looks like you aren't going to have to worry about that!

I personally have not heard of homemade laundry soap. What if you could do laundry using no laundry detergent, no bleach, no fabric softener and no hot water? The company I represent has technology that offers this solution to saving money. If you want to know more, let me know and I can get you some info.
Thanks,
judyT

I make a liquid version of Meredith's B.'s detergent minus the washing soda. I grate the Fels Naptha and dump it into a large 5 gallon bucket. I add 4 gallons of really hot water, stir it around and let the soap dissolve. Then I add a cup of Borax, stir it in and then fill my detergent bottles. I always use cold water with everything so I found the liquid version is better since the powdered version never seemed to dissolve very well.

Hi K.
We shop with Melaleuca and their MelaPower is 16 cents for an extra large load of clothes you don't use hot water. it is 6 times concentrated.
if you want more info just let me know
We have 6 people in our family and I save over $200 a month with this company
M.
____@____.com

I do know of a company that has safer and healthier products for use in your home. I don't know if your question has already been answered. Please contact me if you wish to know their website ____@____.com

I have never made my own laundry soap but if you are looking to save money on your basic everyday home products,I have an awesome company to share with you! Their laundry soap is patent-pending 6x concentrated! I only use 1/2 ounce per load! All of their products are non-caustic, safer for your family and the environment and super concentrated so I save money. If you would like the details, please contact me at ____@____.com it a great day!

I've made my own and it is a cost saver. I dissoled a bar of Fels N. soap and mixed in washing soda (I have found it at Giant Eagle and Acme). Any online recipe will work. I did use lavendar oil for scent, though our clothes never smelled like it. Still, they were clean, it's cheap and not hard to do. Try it!

Hi K.,
I have heard of making laundry soap but have never tried it. I use a concentrated one that isn't available in stores and had one 14 lb. box that lasted slightly over a year. There are five in our family, and a husband who is often fixing cars, etc. so plenty of real dirt. I'll let you respond off site if you want to know where to get it, otherwise hope you are able to make one that is good for clothes and your washer as well - something to think about. ____@____.com

I have made homemade soap and besides it being more runny than normal store bought it works just fine and it CHEAP! Next time I'm going to buy some fragrance to with with it to make a nice smell.

i've heard of it and thought about trying it... but now we have a high efficiency washer and just need a Tablespoon of regular detergent per load so i just do that instead... one jar goes a long way! i would put lavendar essential oil in it if i made some, mmmmm! one thing i do is use vinegar as a fabric softener in the rinse cycle, and as a germ killer with yucky clothes in the wash cycle.

I got the basic recipe for thesimpledollar.com and have tweaked it to suit my needs. I've been using it for about a year now and I love it. I shred two bars of ivory in 4 cups of hot water, then when its mostly dissolved I add it to 3 gallons of warm water. Then I had 1 scoop about 1/2 cup of powdered Tide, 1/2 cup of super washing soda, 1 cup of borax, and 1 cup of dawn dish soap. I mix it well and let it sit overnight until it gells. It's not quite as economical as Trent's recipe, but it gets more food and baby stains out. That will last me about a month. I've shared my recipe with my friend and she loves it also. The ivory soap makes it smell nice and the dawn gets the grease stains out and give is kind of a blue color. Tide helps with the enzymes that get stains out. I use 1 cup per load in a large top load machine. My kids love to help make it. They think its super fun to mix in the big bucket in the kitchen.

Try the About.com -- Frugal Living Newsletter. They offer home made recipes for laundry and household cleaners.

It's interesting to see your request come on Friday, (although I received it Saturday). I spent Friday evening online at this webpage :

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/03/15/how-to-make-you...

reading up on that exact topic.
I think I'm going to try it too!
Good luck

If that doesn't work go to www.thesimpledollar.com and scroll down to "most popular articles" on the right-hand side. "how to make your own laundry detergent" is listed there.