Make your laundry detergent yourself and save money!

Are you looking for ways to save some extra cash? Try this recipe for homemade laundry detergent from the Duggar Family website! Not only is this a great way to save some cash, but the soap is environmentally friendly without the phosphates and chemicals in store bought soap. It is also free of perfumes and dyes so it's great for those with sensitive skin. One batch will make 10 gallons of soap or about 180 loads for a top loading machine or a whopping 640 loads for a front loading washer. You will need the following ingredients:

1 Fels-Naptha bar (castile or other natural laundry soap bars work well too)
1 Cup of Washing Soda (sometimes tricky to find but you can order it on the Internet)
1/2 Cup of Borax


Using a hand grater or a food processor grate the bar of soap and add to a large pot. You should designate this pot for soap making and make sure you don't use it to cook food with :). Add in the Washing Soda and Borax.

Pour 4 cups of hot water into your pot and turn your stove on Med High. Stir mixture well and let the soap completely melt. While your soap is melting fill half of a 5 gallon bucket full of more hot water. When your done it should look something like this:

Pour the melted soap mixture into the 5 gallon bucket a stir mixture thoroughly. Add additional hot water to get mixture all the way to the top of the bucket.

Put the lid on your bucket and let the mixture sit overnight. The mixture will gel and get much thicker. Take an empty laundry detergent bottle or similar container. (I bought one of those plastic water holders with a pour spout from Walmart). Fill the container half way full with soap mixture and fill the rest of the way with hot water. Shake vigorously, and shake mixture a little bit before every use. If you want a fragrance, try adding 10 to 15 drops of an essential oil for every two gallons. (We've tried Lemon, Peppermint and Lavender). Use about 1/4 cup for every load in a front washing machine and about 5/8 cup for a top loader. The entire batch of soap complete with essential oil costs between $2 to $3 dollars. Compare that to your store bought soap!