Homemade Laundry Detergent

1 bar of soap (I use Fels Naptha - which is made by Dial - you can usually get this at whole foods markets or small town grocery stores in the laundry aisle)

1 cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax

5 gallon container

few drops of essential oil if desired (I personally like the lemony smell of Fels Naptha and don't use an oil)

Grate the bar of soap (I use a cheese grater)

Melt the soap in 4 cups of water - keep stirring until melted

Fill 5 gallon bucket half full with hot water

Add melted mixture, soda and borax

Fill to the top with more hot water

Stir and let sit for 24 hours then stir again (the first couple days seem to be the most important for stirring. If you forget the second day, it seems to be kinda clumpy - kinda like children's goop)

This then makes 5 gallons of Laundry soap for about $2.00

It is so easy and it only takes 10 minutes

It will thicken up in about a week - stir each day

The different bar soaps you can use instead of Fels-Naptha are Ivory, Sunlight bar soap, Kirk's Hardwater Castile & Zote. They say not to use heavily perfumed soaps.

Also - so to eliminate the clumpy children's goop - stir it in the bucket with this attached to a drill

AWESOME!!  They are called Mix-All Mixer or Paint Mixer for drill