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

[cheekysaver]

I decided to look at laundry soap options and found out lots of people are making their own. Most of us have the starter we acctually get for free or close to free... a bar of soap... they also have borax and washing soda (not sodium bicarbinate it has to be the washing soda) Here is the recipe with a youtube vid and this is way easier then couponing and spending hours trying to accumulate the laundry soap. For less then the cost of the tax on laundry soap we are all set up without spending time searching for deals or driving and spending gas to get the deals. You certainly don't have to do this but it is the best deal i have found and it doesn't take all that long.

Here are the directions with a recipe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arcCc...eature=related
Even if you don't do it the process is really interesting.

[wildfirejessi]

Neat idea, but I'm too lazy for that...LOL

[redsky]

Hmmmm, I'm very intrigued by this idea. I will watch the video later.

[lillygirl]

Might try this out sometime - thanks!

[Terry_Lynn]

I didn't watch the video, but the recipe sounds like the one I used for a couple of years...works great and really only takes a bit of time. I'm sure when I first made it I did a calculation of the cost of ingredients used in the recipe (vs what I actually bought and was left over) and I'm sure the cost worked out to something ridiculous like $0.69 per batch...it was crazy.

I make my own soap, so for me the cost was way down. Now I normally just grate my own soap and use a tbsp of that alone or with some washing soda or borax or even baking soda (just depends on how lazy I am and the dirt/stink factor of the load .) Always use a vinegar rinse when you use the homemade laundry deterg or soap though, it will remove any soap or soap residue from your clothes & washer leaving everything as clean as clean can be

[saveadollardiva]

I think i might try this when I get a chance

[lizardlipz]

I've been making my own laundry detergent for a while now. It's awesome! When I run out all I have to do is mix a little bit more. I never have to worry about which one is on sale

[cheekysaver]

I just mixed up a half batch using 3/4's of a bar of lever fresh scent soap (that worked out to 1 cup of graded soap and it was easy to grate and i did the fine shred so it would melt fast) and 1/2 a cup of borox (our water is really hard) and 1/ 2 a cup of washing soda (all were availible in superstore here) I have enough left to make at least 6 more batches and the bar of soap cost me .25 cents each... it will work out to under $2.50 for me to make 25 Liters of detergent... each load takes 125 ml and it works out to 200 loads in a normal top load machine and 400 in a HE.... now i just have to wait to see how it sets.. i will bottle it up before bed and get back to you guys. I will have no trouble shaking the bottles to get laundry done for a penny a load lol... tax would have cost more!

[jaxflower]

I may just have to try this - my laundry soap stockpile is quickly dwindling and this doesn't look as hard as I thought, so long as I can find the ingredients. Can't wait to hear others results.
Jax

[juniperjune]

I used to make this but now I cant find Borax

[lucy16076]

Cheeky....how'd this work?? Sounds interesting!

I just mixed up a half batch using 3/4's of a bar of lever fresh scent soap (that worked out to 1 cup of graded soap and it was easy to grate and i did the fine shred so it would melt fast) and 1/2 a cup of borox (our water is really hard) and 1/ 2 a cup of washing soda (all were availible in superstore here) I have enough left to make at least 6 more batches and the bar of soap cost me .25 cents each... it will work out to under $2.50 for me to make 25 Liters of detergent... each load takes 125 ml and it works out to 200 loads in a normal top load machine and 400 in a HE.... now i just have to wait to see how it sets.. i will bottle it up before bed and get back to you guys. I will have no trouble shaking the bottles to get laundry done for a penny a load lol... tax would have cost more!

[kazm-l]

I used to make this but now I cant find Borax

I've bought it before from Walmart - Have you already checked there?

[cheekysaver]

Ok i am back with details... i had one success and one failure and the failure was user error lol

I found a bar of soap at the dollar store when i took my daughter and i liked the scent so i decided to try using a milk jug and just make up a small batch. I came home and graded up about 1/3 of a bar on the small grader (it was a 100 gm bar) i heated it in the microwave in a glass container with 1 1/2 cups of water and started with 1 1/2 mins and stirred and put it in for 30 seconds and stirred and repeated the 30 seconds until it was all melted. Then i poured it in the clean used milk jug and filled it half way up with water and added 100 ml of borax and 100 ml of washing soda and shook the crap out of it until it melted. Becareful to vent the jug often if you do this. Once it was all melty i added in cold water and capped it and put it in the laundry room over night. When i went back in the morning there was a seperation where the gloopy stuff was on top and i shook it up and it came out of the jug a little liquidy so i gave it a test run... a big test run... i did my room mates laundry ( he works at a auto salvage place and comes home totally covered in dirt and oil) I used just over 2 times the normal 1/4 i would use in regular laundry and it came out cleaner then if i had washed it twice and rinsed it a 3rd time with store bought soap. It didn't remove all the stains... honestly there is nothing that has ever been produced that will get these clothes looking new but this did the best job so far.

Now on to my bucket failure lol... i used too much water and not enough of the bar of soap... i measured using a fine grate and i should have gone more by the weight of the product then i ended up with a good 3 gallons of the soap made instead of the 2.5 gallons i intended to make... i have graded more soap and i will bring it up to temp then add in half that bucket to get it all hot and mixed again and see if i can fix it... i dunno... like i said... user error lol.

Now user error aside it leaves a few questions...

Diid it suds?... Not at all... the machine is a top load standard unit and it had no suds... that in no way effected the soaps abilty to clean.

Was it worth making? Yes it is more cost effective and works better and i found it rinsed considerably better then store bought soap. On top of that it is increadibly cheap. We make this for less then the cost of tax on a product we would have got free couponing and we don't have to go store to store and waste gas money.

Where to get the borax?... i found it at Walmart and at Superstore... it was $1 cheaper at Walmart.

Where to get the Arm and Hammer washing soda? ... Some find it at Home hardware and some find it at walmart ... walmart and superstore are a few blocks away from each other here so i went from walmart to superstore.

Total start up cost? The washing soda was $5 and the Borax was $5 and there are enough in the boxes to make 6-8 5 gallon buckets... that is 30- 40 gallons of soap. If you have free bars of body soap in your stock that is free... if not use some coupons and get a product you love the smell of.

Where can i get a 5 gallon bucket cheap?... try a bakery or restraunt... often they give them away.

Do i need to transfer it out of the bucket?...Do transfer into bottles asap after it has gelled. It is just easier to shake up a small bottle then to mix up a full batch before you use it.

Do i need to give it a shake every time?... yup you sure do... make sure the cap is on tight or you will have a mess on your hands! lol

Please feel free to ask if you have any more questions... i just awnsered the ones i had about the product before i made it.

[cheekysaver]

LAUNDRY SOAP REPAIR!

Ok i messed up my first batch by not putting in enough bar soap... so i melted more in water and added a few cups of the mix and nuked it... once it was mixed i tossed it all in the bucket and wisked it together and right before my eyes it thickened.... so don't be scared to try this ... if it is too thick when you go to stir it... don't freak out... that happens... stir it up and wait to see what it looks like... too thick means you just add some water... to thin melt some more soap and fix it.... Everything about this recipe seems to be fixable if you mess up.

[cheekysaver]

Ok i made a youtube of what the laundry soap looks like and why you need to shake it. I did this a day after bottling it so you guys can get a visual on what you end up with... it smells so good.... but when the washer is done all the smell is gone because it rinses so clean. As you can see in the vid it even works in a beat up old washing machine that fell down a set of stairs! LOL

http://youtu.be/YmGkxSHRzMY