Making your own homemade laundry detergent
Making you own homemade laundry detergent is really easy and it costs pennies compared to the cost of buying laundry detergent in the stores. Here is what you will need and how you make it:
The ingredients are readily available from any hardware or large grocery store.
You will need: Borax, Super Washing Soda, a laundry soap – I have found that zote works best and any essential oil that you like and a 5 gallon bucket with a lid like the one pictured here
You will also need a cheese grater and a large pot to melt your soap:
Start first by grating your bar of soap into a bowl, then you will put your large pot of water on the stove to boil. You need to melt your soap to a liguid form, make sure to stir continually and not allow it to get too hot.
Put your pot with water on the fire to heat and slowly add your grated soap into it:
Once your water is hot enough you can turn down the fire and continue to stir until melted:
After melting your soap then you will need to fill your five gallon bucket half full with hot water:
Add in a 2 cups of borax, and two cups of super washing soda and stir. Now you will add in your melted soap into your bucket.
Fill your bucket up the rest of the way with warm water and add in your essential oils and stir. Now you will want to cover your bucket and let it sit for about 12 hours. You want it to sit until it has a gel like consistency. I just put mine out on the patio for a day to let it sit. I also write laundry detergent on my bucket so as not to confuse anyone…lol.
After your soap has sat for a day you will want to make sure it is gelled. Once you determine that it is, you want to take a large stick or spatula and stir it until it is back to a liquid consistency. At this point you can pour off what you need into gallon jugs or I use empty laundry detergent bottles.
Cover the rest and put it out of the way. Again I just put it outside on the patio and when your bottles are empty you will need to stir it again to make it liquid then just fill your bottles again. This soap lasts for a long time.
You will only need to use a half cup for a large load of clothes. This detergent does not sud up like the stuff you buy in stores but it cleans your clothes really well and it smells great. The best part is that you know what is in it. It is really gentle on your clothes. I have not had any color fading. You may need to use a little more for stubborn stains but you can always adjust it for your liking.
I hope this was clear. Happy Washing!!!