Homemade Laundry Soap

Every time I buy laundry soap, liquid or powder, name-brand or off-brand, I cringe. It's expensive because I always have to use more soap than the recommended dosage because a) none of it is meant for hard water, and b) Art gets really, really dirty in his job. It doesn't seem to clean very well, so our clothes have somewhat of a shelf-life. I wanted to use something natural, but if you think regular laundry soap can be expensive, the natural soaps are triple the price for much less soap. I had toyed with the idea of making my own laundry soap, but had never found an easy recipe that didn't involve scouring eastern Iowa for lye. I'm also afraid of lye because I'm afraid it will splash on me and make me blind. A few weeks ago, I asked a friend to email me her recipe for laundry soap (she also included her recipes for stain remover, homemade Oxy-clean, fabric sheets and dishwasher detergent. That's my next project as every dish detergent we've tried leaves a disgusting amount of soap scum build up.) It was very easy and all of the ingredients cost less than $10.00. I had an empty laundry detergent bucket in the basement and the recipe made enough to fill it- about three gallons. If you are interested, here is the recipe:

1. Grate 2 cups worth of bar soap (I used Fels Naptha, but I've heard Dr. Bronner's is good, too).

2. Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil and add your grated soap. Wait for the water to come to a boil again and reduce the heat to low. Stir the solution until the soap is melted.

3. Remove your soap and water from the heat and pour the mixture into your bucket.

4. Mix in 2 cups of borax and 2 cups of washing soda (found in the laundry/cleaner supplies aisle). Stir until completely dissolved.

5. Stir in 2 gallons of water and allow the mixture to cool. Add 15 to 20 drops of essential oil if you'd like a scented detergent (I forgot this part).

6. Place a lid on your detergent and stir it before each use. Use 1/4 cup of detergent for each regular-sized load of laundry.

Don't use too much bar soap; I did and instead of remaining liquid-y, it became quite gelatinous. It still works very well, but if you don't want a lumpy-jello-detergent, use the recommended amount.

I washed all of our clothes with it this weekend and even Art's greasiest, dirtiest clothes came out cleaner than with the store-bought detergent. I had him look at them in case it was more a placebo-effect for me, but he agreed that his clothes looked and smelled much cleaner!