Our Families D.I.Y. Laundry Soap

I have meant to blog about this ever since I started this blog, just have not gotten to it until today.  I have been using this soap for a little over 2 years now, and we love it!  I did many internet searches, Pinterest searches and this is what we ended up putting into our homemade laundry soap. 

For a double batch of soap that usually last our family of 6 anywhere from four to six months depending on how much laundry we have.  We go through more in the warm months due to camping, riding ATVs in the mud, etc. The ingredients this time were about 50 dollars it would have been less if I went to Sams Club, but I did not have the time today.  Even at 50 dollars for 4-6 months probably more toward six months, it is still cheaper (and better working in my opinion) than the Tide I used to buy.

                                       

                      Here is a list of the ingredients for a double batch:

                                   6- Bars Fels-Naptha Laundry Soap  

                                   1- 7.22 lb.  Oxi Clean         

                                   2- 3 lb.  Boxes Laundry Booster Super Washing Soda

                                   2- 4 lb. Boxes 20 Mule Team Borax

                                   2- 4 lb. Boxes Pure Baking Soda

                                   1- 19.5 oz. Downy UnStoppables (I use Fresh Sent)

                                   1- 13.2 oz. UnStoppables (I use Fresh Sent)

The first and most time consuming part of making this laundry soap is grating the Fels-Naptha soap bars, I have been making this for over 2 years and still use the same hand held cheese graters I bought at the dollar tree specifically for this purpose.  

Fels-Naptha before you grate it

Fels-Naptha after you grate it, it will look like grated cheese...just do not eat it!

Once you have completed grating the soap bars, I open all my boxes and get my laundry soap container ready, which is a 20 quart container.

Then I start layering the ingredients, this helps make sure I have everything equally distributed.  For example I do a box of borax, than a layer of grated soap, a box of baking soda, a layer of soap, than a layer of Downy UnStoppables, and so on.  

You can sort of see how I layer my ingredients.

Once I have it all in my container I mix it, and the most efficient way I have found to work is to just use my hands making sure I get all the way to the bottom of container.  I just keep mixing it until I think everything is mixed evenly.  I than use a scoop from a smaller container of Oxi Clean, I do not use the large one that comes in the 7.22 lb. box.

I use the small scoop from a small container of Oxi-Clean, and use 1 scoop per load

This is how I make our families laundry detergent, I do not have a High efficient washing machine, so I cannot say if this will work in one.  What I can tell you is I have four kids, two boys, two girls, and a Husband that has a very dirty job and this stuff works great!  I have not gone back to store bought laundry detergent in two years if that tells you anything.  I hope this helps you, and enjoy, let your kids help make it.  My little boy helped today he only grated half a bar of soap to my 5 1/2 bars of soap, but he was excited to help mom!

My little helper, he really liked helping make our laundry soap, he also really likes to put 1 scoop in and help with starting the laundry too!