Making your own laundry soap under $5 for years of detergent

[cheekysaver]

I found a recipe for making your own dishWASHER detergent on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6NO1iBSeis
If you live in a area like my parents where they can get a white film on the dishes you could increase the citric acid a bit... i am not sure if this is cheaper then store bought with coupons. the yeald is 3 cups with the recipe or 750 mls and it will work out to up to 2.5 to make a batch each load is 1 TBSP or 15 mls. So this batch works out to 50 loads for 2.50 or less. We don't have a dishwasher so i am not sure if this is a good deal.

[bluerose]

Thanks for all the information ,I have made my laudry soap and its good enough for me ,will have to keep a eye out for washing soda at Walmart or Maxi. Now on to dishwasher soap. "hurray"

[matrix82]

I want to try this.

[matrix82]

I just saw an awesome recipe for dishwasher soap which added to it koolaid no sugar added lemonade powder into it. It apparently adds smell, and more cleaning power with the citric acid that is in it.

[matty's mom]

I just saw an awesome recipe for dishwasher soap which added to it koolaid no sugar added lemonade powder into it. It apparently adds smell, and more cleaning power with the citric acid that is in it.

I saw one like that too! I am down to my last box of Seventh Generation dishwasher soap. I am going to try this one when I need it:

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/...t-revised.html

[kasha100]

try independent for the washing soda and borax- wm is touch and go!

would love the shampoo recipe as well

great thread !

[kazm-l]

Finally found the Soda at IGA!

[aemi]

I am going to try this in the next few days. Wish me luck.

Does anyone have this recipe written down and can share with us?

[Pinkypie]

My BFF makes homemade laundry soap, we call it Duggar soap lol
it works awesome and I love the smell, smells clean, not like a "summer breeze"!

[bluerose]

Wow you need Kosher salt for dishwasher soap its like 5.00 bucks a box,why Kosher salt? and wonder if theres some other salt we can use. I made it anyways hope it works well ,love making my new soaps all the same.

[aemi]

what kind of bar soap do you use? can you use anykind?

[bluerose]

http://www.zote.com.mx/english/about.htm
1 bar laundry soap like Fels Naptha or Zote, or Ivory - Zote can be found in hispanic grocery stores

if this helps anyone, then great. Powdered laundry soap recipes can be made with many kinds of soap. If you can't find Fels Naptha, Zote, Kirk's Castile, Sunlight or Ivory, then try just about any shower soap bar! Dial, Lever 2000 and many others have been used with success! The only ones that will not work are the ones with added oils or moisturizers such as Dove.

[cheekysaver]

Wow you need Kosher salt for dishwasher soap its like 5.00 bucks a box,why Kosher salt? and wonder if theres some other salt we can use. I made it anyways hope it works well ,love making my new soaps all the same.

They use kosher salt because it desolves slower then regular salt. Honestly i would try a very small cheater batch with regular salt... like making 1 cup worth to see how it works... it could be just fine with the cheap stuff. I really like to adapt things to the items i have in stock so i am not spending the cash. Most dishwashers have the 2 spaces to fill anyways so you would be getting the salt in the load still. Really instead of using the cup measurements you could just do a tablespoon measurement and give it a go on a very small level.

[cheekysaver]

http://www.zote.com.mx/english/about.htm
1 bar laundry soap like Fels Naptha or Zote, or Ivory - Zote can be found in hispanic grocery stores

if this helps anyone, then great. Powdered laundry soap recipes can be made with many kinds of soap. If you can't find Fels Naptha, Zote, Kirk's Castile, Sunlight or Ivory, then try just about any shower soap bar! Dial, Lever 2000 and many others have been used with success! The only ones that will not work are the ones with added oils or moisturizers such as Dove.

Thanks that is great info. I found the cheap bars of soap worked best in this... lever seemed to require much more soap and it didn't solidify as well... the camay cheap soap i grabbed at the dollar store worked amazing. I would try the ivory any day as well and in my next batch i am going to put in 1/3 of the free sample of downy unstoppables in with the soap to disolve. I don't want my laundry to have that strong of a scent but a small portion of the pack sounds like a interesting trial run for me. I tried 1 tbsp of the unstoppables in my washer and found the scent too strong so i will adapt it into the soap because i have it and like it and it smells nice. I really love that we can play with the recipe and fix anything that comes up. I had a nasty stain that i didn't know if it would come out... i just put the laundry soap directly on the stain and tossed on the washer and poof it was gone. I was very surprised how well it worked and i have never purchased the "laundry soap bars" I would love to know how you guys experiment with this stuff and how it has turned out.

[cheekysaver]

I am going to try this in the next few days. Wish me luck.

Does anyone have this recipe written down and can share with us?

Have a 5 gallon bucket ready... you can get one for free or a couple dollars at a fast food place like dairy queen. You also need to have containers to store your laundry soap in so it is ready to use. Some use milk jugs, recycled laundry jugs, water bottles, pop bottles ect.

5 ounces of graded bar soap (by weight and grade on the fine section so it melts fast)
Melt the soap in about 4-6 cups of water... you don't have to be exact on this put it on about meduim heat until it is completly melted.

When the soap is completly melted I add in about a gallon of water and 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of the washing soda (it HAS to be the "washing soda")Leave it on the heat until the borax and washing soda are completly desolved.

Fill the 5 gallon bucket up half way with cold water. Pour in your desolved soap and borax and washing soda mix. Stir it in. Top off the rest of the bucket with cold water.

At this point your mix will be thick and ready to bottle and in 1/2 hour you have 5 gallons of laundry soap. Bottle it right away using a funnel and some sort of big scoop or jug to pour it into the bottles. Cap it and put it away. Shake the bottle to mix it together before you use it and congradulations you just saved a bundle of money, gas, travel and searching for deals. I add in the cold water so i don't have to wait over night to see if it thickens. It also saves the step of having to stir it up when it is thickened and gloopy and that can be a pain. The laundry jugs are a better way to store this in my opinion because it is a shakable amount. To store it in the 5 gallon jugs means stirring that whole jug up every time and that quickly becomes a huge pain. A five to 10 second shake before i use it is much more acceptable. I hope this helps.