Home Made Laundry Soap ~ A Big Savings!

The most exciting thing I've discovered this last week is home made laundry soap.  How easy it is to make and how incredibly clean and bright our clothes are.  I haven't done the calculations on the savings myself but have read others say that it is pennies per load for the cost.  My cost is kept real low because I make all my own bars of soap now. 

This is a very simple recipe for home made laundry soap, all you need is;  Borax, washing soda, A bar of soap (any bar will probably do, however if I had to buy soap I'd use Dr. Bronner's pure castile soap, I've also read in other home recipes they call for Fels Naptha, or Sunrise soap), and water.  You can find all of these ingredients in the laundry isle of most grocery stores.
Here's the recipe for the smaller size batch, for the extra large family size batch look at recipe below this one.

Home made laundry soap recipe;

You will need a large pot to mix everything on the stove.  First put 4 quarts of water on to boil, then grate 1/3 to 1/2  bar of soap, pour into the water to melt. Heat on medium until the soap is fully dissolved.  Then add 1/2  cup each of washing soda and borax and stir until those are dissolved.  Turn off the heat and add 2 more quart jars of water.  Stir real good, your pot should be quite full.  You still need to add 2 more quarts for a total of 8 quarts (32 cups) of water.  This makes enough to do 64 loads of laundry using 1/2 cup per load. It will thicken up as it cools and you will have a gel like soap that dissolves nicely when you do your laundry, even on the cold cycle.   If you have old laundry detergent bottles these would be great to reuse, or any easily pourable plastic container would work great for you to store your laundry detergent in. 

   

Large Recipe (makes enough for 160 loads of laundry)

You will need an extra large pot to mix the ingredients on the stove.  First put 10 quarts of water on to boil, then grate 1 1/2 bars of soap, pour into water to melt. Heat on medium until the soap is fully dissolved.  I then add 1 1/4  cup each of washing soda and borax and stir until those are dissolved.  Turn off heat and add 5 more quart jars of water.  Stir real good, your pot should be quite full.   You will then add 5 more quarts of water (I did the last 2 steps in a bucket, because my pot wasn't big enough) for a total of  20 quarts (80 cups), I actually made mine a little more concentrated and didn't add the last 5 quarts of water.  This makes enough to do 160 loads of laundry using 1/2 cup per load. It will thicken up as it cools, and is a gel like soap that dissolves nicely when doing laundry.   

I just made this extra large batch of home made laundry soap and am thrilled with the results.  I am so excited because of the full realization since I began making soap, of just how much money I can save our family overall with making bars of soap, dishwashing soap, and now laundry soap.  Just think how important soap is in our day to day lives, we bathe with it, wash dishes, do laundry, clean our houses, along with many other things.  Now imagine you can make it all, simply and inexpensively.

Next on my desire to learn list is making shampoo's, lotions and lip balms.  One thing leads to another you know.  I also need things to do indoors on the cold wet days, which I hope will be getting warmer and sunnier.  Do you make any of your own home products that add up to big savings?  I'd love to hear about them.