Home Made Laundry Soap

First off, I had to figure out where to get these ingredients. I was told to check Wal-greens...no luck. After calling around I finally found them rather closer to home than I had hoped...our local ACE Hardware store. I was so happy! The Borax was from Wal-Mart and the Washing Soda and Fels-Neptha from ACE.  Here's how it goes:  Put 4 cups of water in a pan and heat almost to boiling. Shave with knife or grate with cheese grater the bar of Fels-Neptha into pan. The finer the grate, the better it dissolves. Dissolve all the soap. If you don't, you might come across a small slimy lump when you hang up the socks...just a thought.  I previously picked up this bucket from, obviously, Sam's Club bakery for free. They have nice sealable lids. So in this I put 3 gallons of water. Add the dissolved soap-in-water, stir and add 1 cup washing soda. Stir. Add 1 cup borax, stir till all dissolved and well mixed. Let set overnight. It gels up pretty good so stir it up good before you use it....or use it lumpy if you like lumps. Use about 1 cup per load. I use one of those green scoops from a former Tide laundry detergent. That's it!! It's SO EASY! I don't think it took me over an hour and that was with kids so without kids, perhaps 1/2 and hour? How does it smell? I think it has a fresh lemon smell to it. I tried to add about a half a bar of lavender scented soap but the lemon overpowered it and I can't tell it's in there. I'm thinking of trying SOMETHING for scent...just for fun. :) 

Here's the recipe if you don't like to read through my scribbles to get it:

1 bar Fels-neptha  (some say any kind of good bar soap but this is esp good for laundry)

1 cup washing soda (not baking soda, there is a difference)

1 cup borax

Put 4 cups of water in a pan. Heat almost to boiling. Shave soap with knife or grate with cheese grater into water. Stir till all the soap is dissolved.

Put 3 gallons of warm or hot water into a 5 gallon bucket or really big pot. Then mix above water/soap, and washing soda into water. Add borax and stir till all dissolved. Let it set overnight. It will gel so stir again before use. Use about 1 cup water per load of laundry.

For anther great tutorial and a slight variation, go to Living Simply