Saturday, June 18, 2011

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap ~ Save $$$

   I've wanted to make my own laundry soap for a few months now, ever since I read about it in a post online. I just never thought that was something I'd ever do. So, yesterday while I was out at my local pharmacy, I spotted Nellie's All Natural Laundry Soda ( don't you just love their packaging?). I really wanted to try it but I was short on money and this brought me back to the homemade stuff I'd read about. I decided right in that moment that I was going on another Grand Granola Adventure and sought out the ingredients I needed.

   Luckily for me, this store also carried Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, an ingredient in the recipe I'd seen. For about $7, I obtained my first step!  Next, I headed to Walmart to find the other two. The package of two bars, Sunlight Pure Soap ($2) and box of Borax ($5) were both found in the laundry aisle.


   When I got home, I found/dug out an old 5 gallon pail with a lid, a cheap old canning pot, an extra cheese grater, wooden spoon and measuring cup.
The kids wanted to help, so I let little C grate the cheese..er...bar of soap and little N stir the pot! 


Recipe
1         Grated Bar Sunlight
1         Gallon water (16 C.)
1    C. Super Washing Soda
1/2 C. Borax
3         Gallons water(48 C.)

Grate Sunlight Bar while bringing 1 Gal. water to a boil in large pot. Add grated soap to boiling water and stir until dissolved. Add washing soda & borax, stir until dissolved. Place 3 Gal. water into 5 Gal. bucket, add dissolved solution and stir to combine. Let sit overnight. Solution will become thick, stir and pour into desired dispenser or scoop directly from bucket.

Use 1/2 C. for normal loads. Use 1 C. for heavily soiled.

   *I've read that this is a low sudsing soap.

   I tried to find the original post to credit the blog but when I did a search for homemade laundry soap, so many came up that I never did find the one I was looking for. This was the recipe most cited and I even saw a few for dry powder. These have the same ingredients minus the water and the bar of soap should be run through a food processor to create smaller pieces. Mix and use 3 Tablespoons per load.

Easy Peasy right? I'll let you know how it goes and once I do the math (again) to work out the price per load.

Until next time, I'm off to do some laundry....
  

4 comments:

  1. H! You are sooooo crafty! I wish I thought of this stuff. Thank you for inspiring me to save some money in other ways!

    I am collecting my dryer lint and flyers to use as kindling this weekend while camping :)

    Love,

    Little T

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  2. You know what? I think I have seen a million posts on laundry soap making, but never one from Canada. I like the recipe and I think you
    Should call it yours!
    Do you think this recipe would work in an HE machine?

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  3. Little Sister Bear,
    I am so glad to hear I've inspired you <3
    Have a great trip (and stay tuned for homemade fabric softener that won't clog your dryer vents!)
    Almost Granola Momma

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  4. Jason,
    Thanks! This recipe would most definitely work in an HE machine. The low sudsing quality makes it ideal for HE. Let me know if you try it! (P.S. There is a bar soap that I am dying to try in the recipe, Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile ~ wouldn't peppermint laundry smell and feel amazing?)
    Almost Granola Momma

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