Oooooh this one I'm totally pumped about. Do people still say totally, or pumped, or totally pumped?
At first I was worried about where I would find these ingredients and how difficult this would be. Let me tell ya. The ingredients were at Walmart and Smiths, (our local grocery store). And it took me five minutes to make, (could have taken me less time as I'll explain later).
Here's how to do it.
Assemble your three ingredients. Washing Soda and Fels Naptha were at Walmart. 20 Mule Team Borax were at Smiths. How much is this going to cost ya? Your first cost will be a grand total of 8.50 for all three things. I figured out that
the cost of one recipe is 1.19 because you will use to boxed stuff again.
Using a microplane grater or something else pretty small. Grate up your Fels Naptha soap. NOW...IF your Kitchen Aid still works and IF you are lucky enough to have the cheese grater attachment this would take you 30 seconds. If you think your cheese grater's holes are too big then you could run this through a food processor too. Dump in 2 Cups of Washing Soda and 2 Cups of Borax. Stir it all up!
Cut up an old cheesecloth thingy/dishrag and pour a little rice in it. Then use string or a bread wrapper guy and make a little rice satchel to help control the moisture of your soap.
Put your satchel in with your soap in a ziplock or tupperware container and seal it up.
You use 2 T of detergent per wash load so rather than sacrifice one of my own for the cause of laundry I took an old liquid laundry measurer and put 2 T in it and then drew a sharpie line where I would need my detergent to stop. Then because I was so excited I threw in a load of Eva's clothes immediately. They just stopped washing so I'm going to go take a look.
I'm back. They smell great and even some poopy stains were washed out!
Here's the short version:
Gather Fels Naptha, Washing Soda and Borax 20 Mule Team.
Grate your Fels Naptha into a bowl and add 2 Cups of Soda and 2 Cups of 20 Mule Team.
Store in an airtight container.
Yields 48 wash loads and costs 1.19 to make one recipe. ( I spelled recipe correctly for the first try and that never happens).
Will I do it again-totally I'm hooked
Hippie Score-8
Cost-1.19
Assemble your three ingredients. Washing Soda and Fels Naptha were at Walmart. 20 Mule Team Borax were at Smiths. How much is this going to cost ya? Your first cost will be a grand total of 8.50 for all three things. I figured out that the cost of one recipe is 1.19 because you will use to boxed stuff again. 
6 comments:
In your research, do you think it would work in a front loader machine where it calls for the special "h.e" liquid?? Not sure what happens if you don't use te "h.e" which stands for highly efficent, wondering if that really should stand for highly expensive?
I have no experience with this but there are lots of comments on the internet that say it’s fine to use. Be aware that using anything other than what your machine manufacturer recommends may void your warranty.
Homemade detergent is low sudsing which is important for HE machines.
One internet guy says: For the last year, I have been using the following Mix for my Sears Kenmore HE front loader:
3 bars Fels Naptha
3 cups Borax
3 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda.
Grate the Fels Naptha, then put in a food processor with a chopping blade and chop until fine.
Pour into a large bowl with the Borax and Washing Soda and stir until combined.
Use 1/4 cup in a HE front loader, use 1/2 cup in a top loader. In my HE front loader, it dissolves perfectly
Does that help?
Thanks Laura for the research on the front loader. My mom and a few friends have been making the soap for a while, but I've been too lazy to look up if it is ok for front loaders. I think I will try this once I run out of what I have on hand...
No problem...i think "my" recipe will work just fine for front loaders too.
Totes pumped to try this! Bring on the naptha!
I love making stuff from scratch...so I was happy to see your homemade laundry soap recipe! And I am looking forward to checking out more of your homemade concoctions!
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