Homemade laundry soap

Last year I was talking with some of the mom's in my sons class about ways to save on our budgets.  One mother talked about making her own laundry detergent.  I don't know why I never thought of making my own detergent before but I am amazed on how much money it really does save.  I usually buy from Costco the Eco's brand at around $18 for 64 loads.  I do have a High Efficiency machine and it works well.  The homemade detergent is also great for HE machines as it does not have sudsing.  Bubbles are made from fillers in detergents, they also can leave residue on machines and clothes.  This detergent is great for those of you that use cloth diapers as it does not have waxes and repellents in it. 

1 Cup Borax

1Cup Washing Soda

1/3 bar of Zote or Fels-naptha bar

10 drops of Tea tree oil

Fragrance

                                                                               24 cups of water.

Grate soap and add to 6 cups of hot water, heat until soap is melted, add in borax and soda until diluted.  Mix in 6 cups of water and stir.  Set until cool add in remaining liquid, tea tree oil and fragrance, set overnight.  It will be chunky and soupy.  I needed to stir and mix mine periodically.  It will need to be shaken before each use.  I use about 1/4 cup per load

I used a halved creamer bottle for a funnel, I can never find one when I need one.  Reused my old laundry bottle.  This one is a bit big so I use the creamer bottle and just refill as needed.  

Here is a container I used to mix the soap and store it.  I was surprised to see this label on it.  I had bought this with smaller ones inside.  I use those for my food but not any more.  They were sold at Winco for food storage containers.  It says This product contains chemicals even lead, that are known to cause cancer, birth defects, and reproductive harm in California.  Good thing I do not live in California.    I am going to Ikea and replacing all my plastic with glass. 


Here are some Laundry tips
Here is how to make Dishwasher soap

                                      

                             

Costs of each product runs at- Borax $4.89, Washing soda $2.39, Fels-Naptha on Amazon is $.98.  If you wanted to add tea tree oil it is around $10 a bottle and also fragrance between $5-$9 a bottle.
I have plenty of soda and borax to make much more.  It was $8.26 to make and I can still make more. The tea tree oil is for disinfecting.  It is not necessary but does add that in.  I also use it in my homemade cleaners.  The soap bars have a fragrance so none is needed, it smells lemony.
Tips on finding products:  Fred Meyers had the Washing soda, it was the hardest to find.  It does sell on Amazon.com and is a great price there.  Home Depot sells the Zote bar and Fels-naptha is at Whole foods or New Seasons.  Borax is in any laundry isle.

As seen http://www.getouttamyheadplease.com/2012/02/show-it-off-link-party-10.html?utm_source=BP_recent  Link party.