Make a Whole Year's Worth of Laundry Detergent for $30

 

The cost of laundry detergent seems to keep getting more and more expensive with each passing week.

Making your own laundry detergent can help you to save a lot of money.

I found a great article to help you make your own laundry detergent for a whole year for only $30!

 

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am completely sold on the No-Grate Laundry Detergent that I posted back in February of this year.  But, like I’ve said many times on this website, I am always open to new ideas! And I really liked this idea that someone posted as a comment awhile back.

A YEARS worth of Laundry Soap!?!?  That’s an idea that is hard NOT to get behind!  Plus, I’ve been curious about the “dry” version of homemade laundry detergent that so many people are fond of. I have never tried it before. I figured it’s high time I did!

Here is the recipe that Anonymous posted (the text in red are my notes):

Anonymous said…
I make a dry version which works better for my family. I hate storing the bottles, shaking it up, and making it more often. I only make it once and it lasts for the entire year for our family of 4.
3 bars Fels Naptha, grated ($1.33 x 3)
1 box Borax  ($5.85  -  76 ounces)
1 box Washing Soda ($4.07  -  55 ounces)
2 cups of baking soda ($0.53 cents)
2 containers of Dollar Tree Oxyclean (I bought mine at Family Dollar store…SUN Brand…$4.00 each)
1-2 containers of Purex fabric softener crystals ($6.97  -  28 ounces) 
Use 2 tablespoons per load. Put it right in the barrel if you have an HE washer.

To grate the bars of soap I decided to make it easier on myself and use my ancient Hamilton Beach food processor. I figured if it broke in the process it would give me a good excuse to get a new one! But fortunately (unfortunately?) it handled the soap just fine. I would offer one tip though if you decide to use your food processer to “grate” your soap: add something else to the bowl to aid in the process. I added a cup of the SUN Oxygen Bleach to each bar when I processed it. It seemed to help the blades do their job better.

My only other tip for this recipe has to do with the “mixing”. Once you add everything, you have a LOT of ingredients to mix together. I decided to put it all in a kitchen garbage bag (doubled) and tumble it all together. Just tie it off tight and turn it over a handful of times and you’re good to go! Now you have a nicely integrated batch of laundry detergent that should last a family of four ONE YEAR!

Since we are over the “family of four” limit, and I tend to think we have more dirty laundry than your AVERAGE family…I’m not expecting this to last a full year….but based on my initial use of this (2 Tablespoons per load)….it’s going to last us a GOOD, LONG time! I did half a dozen loads of laundry with it before we left on vacation and was completely satisfied with the results! So much so that I’m planning on making TWO MORE BATCHES when I get home from vacation to give to my daughter AND my daughter-in-law. :-)  Fun gift idea don’t you think?

This was first posted on http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/

Thanks My Honeys Place and The Gardening Cook

http://blushingbeebyme.blogspot.com/2013/07/make-whole-years-worth-of-laundry.html