Homemade Laundry Soap

Transitioning from working full time at a demanding job that paid pretty well and being a single parent to not working away from home and being half of this phenomenal partnership was not easy for me.  It still isn't all that easy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  The burden of guilt I felt initially for not contributing to our family's financial well-being was pretty heavy.  I felt like I simply was not doing enough, even knowing that I was holding down the fort pretty well.


So gradually, I've embraced this whole domestic guru/student/mom deal, and I've done it in a few different ways.  The first is to realize that more than anything, my little ones deserve my time.  Working took me away from home during more of their waking hours than I wanted to be away from them.  It also made me a grumpy jerk to be around sometimes, which was highly uncool (by the way, Mikey is kind of a saint for putting up with me during that).  


Not working allows me to spend time with them (especially in the summer time) and to really *be* with them.  Woot!  I get to really know who they are, what they like and dislike, and how to guide them in growing up.  Looking back at my own childhood, the times that my parents actually spent with us were the best, regardless of how much money we had.  Camping trips, walks on the beach, playing board games - those are the fondest memories I have.  The fact that I have the opportunity to spend that kind of time with our spawn is awesome.  


Another way I've begun to embrace this whole new life is to make contributions in other ways.  One of my favorite ways to do that is to make as much as I can at home.  Food, clothes, and cleaning products are my favorites at the moment.  I'll cover making jam and wedding dress sewing in other posts.  In this one, I'll show you how I make laundry soap.


I got the idea about making laundry soap after taking a look at the most expensive items we purchase on our grocery list.  We used to buy Tide at Costco once or twice a month.  So that's $23.11 for 110 loads, or about $0.21 per load.  It doesn't sound like much, but it certainly adds up.  We purchased a bottle of Tide about once every six weeks, so that's about $415.98 each year in laundry soap.  Holy crap!


In contrast, the laundry soap I make costs about $0.03 per load, or around $60 each year.  Here's the recipe, which I originally found on The Simple Dollar, and have tweaked slightly based on usage and research on other recipes:


1/3 bar Fels Naptha
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
water


You'll also need a five gallon bucket and a large pot. 

First, grate the soap, and add it to about 5 quarts of water in a large pot.  Heat until the soap melts, careful not to let it boil and get all sudsy.  It'll look like grated cheese at first.  Don't eat it.   

Next, fill your five gallon bucket about 2/3 full of hot water, and add the washing soda and borax.  I like to make a little bit of a paste with a bit of water and the washing soda and borax first.  It makes it easier to get a smooth consistency, since the borax likes to clump up sometimes. 

Next, you simply add the Fels Naptha and water to the mixture in the bucket.  Stir it, and let it sit overnight.

In the morning, you'll have a bucket of goo that works great at cleaning clothes.  You'll need to use about 1/2 a cup for a normal sized load.