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I’ve been thinking about making my own detergent for some time, and this past summer I finally took the big plunge and did it ~ and haven’t gone back since! My fears of it being time-consuming and hard were so completely wrong. It seriously took me about 20 minutes from start to finish, and that includes the time it took me to walk downstairs and grab the boxes I needed as well as grate the soap.
These are the few simple ingredients I needed to make the soap and 9 oz {$3.95} cleaning bar will make two batches of detergent, enough for 128 loads of laundry. After figuring out the cost of the detergent, it works out to about 5 cents a load of laundry, and you'll have plenty of Borax and washing soda for future batches.
- Arm & Hammer Washing Soda {in the cleaning aisle}
- Borax {cleaning aisle}
- Laundry bar ~ I buy mine from Virginia Soaps and Scents
- Water
The recipe that I use comes from the Virginia Soaps and Scents website and you can download a 4x6 folded recipe card here.
Ingredients:
~ 4½ ounces of “Virginia Soaps & Scents” Cleaning Soap
~ ½ cup washing soda
~ ½ cup borax powder ~ grater
~ You will also need a bucket, 3-5 gallon size
Directions:
1. Grate the soap and put it into a large sauce pan. Add 6 cups of water and heat until the Cleaning soap melts.
2. Add the washing soda and the borax. Stir until the mixture is dissolved. Remove from heat.
3. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir.
4. Add 22 cups of water and stir (22 cups = 1 gallon plus 6 cups).
5. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load.
Note: The finished soap will be in a gel form. It is a low-sudsing soap, so is great for front-loading washers as well as the top-load variety.
Our kids love it too, since they can easily scoop the detergent out themselves and help with the laundry {Mommy loves this part too!}. Others have asked if we've noticed any change in our laundry ~ is it getting clean? Absolutely yes! The bars are also unscented, so the detergent doesn't have any overwhelming smell either. Just 'clean'.
If you aren't sure that you want to make your own detergent and want to 'test the waters' to see if it would work for you, Virginia Soaps and Scents offers a Laundry Soap Kit for $4.95 that includes everything you need to make a batch of detergent ~ all you need to do is add water!
Just wanted to pass along a little something that is Working for Me!
