During my vacation for Thanksgiving, my sister, sister-in-law and I all decided to make some home-made laundry detergent using a recipe from Why Not Sew? that we found from Pinterest:
Source: whynotsew.blogspot.com via Kelsey on Pinterest
Here is what you will need:
1 bar of soap (any kind you want)
1 cup of Borax
1 cup of washing soda
a big pot (that holds more than 2 gallons)
a grater
a funnel
a long spoon
2 empty gallon jugs/containers
Step 1: Grate your bar of soap into a large bowl, or directly into the pot.
Step 2: Add one gallon of water to the large pot on medium heat and stir occasionally until the grated soap is dissolved.
Step 3: Add in the washing soda and Borax (both found at Wal-Mart…look on a bottom shelf). The mixture will thicken as you stir. Bring to a boil.
Step 4: After the mixture is boiling, add the other one gallon of water and remove from heat. Mix well and let cool.
Step 5: Use a funnel to put the detergent in your containers.
We ended up making 2 1/2 batches (with different types of soap – thus the different colors).
Step 6: The directions recommend using 1/2 cups per load.
This detergent solution won’t get sudsy, but will do a great job of getting the clothes clean. You may have to shake up the jug before using as I noticed the soap clumped up, but it got my clothes clean!
The Why Not Sew? blog estimates the cost t0 be $6.00 for 576 loads. Worth the little effort for the savings!