Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Homemade Laundry Detergent

This summer I have been on a major "I wanna be a housewife" kick.  I have put up vegetables, made homemade baby food, made jams and jellies, attempted to pick up sewing, put up some freezer meals... so why not follow the trend and make some homemade laundry detergent?

I know people have been making their own detergent for a while now... especially with the new Pinterest fad, but my mama and I finally jumped on the bandwagon.
 
We got our "recipe" from a lady she works with. 

It SHOULD work with all this in it!!
 
Ingredients
Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
Oxiclean
Borax
2 bars of Fels Naptha Laundry Soap
Purex Crystals (for scent, may use any crystal/scent of your choice if you want scented detergent)
 
Directions
1.) Grind your soap in a food processor until it forms fine crumbles.  Mom & I cut our soap up first so that it would process easier.
2.) We used a 5 gallon buck to mix ours with and a big metal spoon
3.) Layer a little of each powder at a time and stir as you go (makes mixing it all a WHOLE lot easier!)
4.)  That's it folks!  If I had known it was this easy I would have done it lots sooner!
 
How to use
Use 2 tablespoons (1oz) per load.
This detergent is HE compatible.
 
 
This made 274 ounces of laundry detergent for $24. 
 
That means 274 loads of laundry, it averages to only 8 cents a load
 
 I like to buy the industrial size Gain from Sam's Club which is about $20 for 225 ounces.  The Gain only makes 146 loads.  If you are a Tide user, it is about $26 for 146 loads.  So, if everything goes according to plan... I should save a little money.
 
I also figured up if you average about 1 load of laundry per day (which is the case for my little family of 3), this batch of detergent would last you for about 9 months!  That's crazy!
 
 Mama & I halved this batch to make sure we liked it.  I can't wait to see how it works! I was so excited I almost washed a load of clean clothes just to try it out!
 
Stay tuned... I plan on sharing my freezer meal making experience!

 



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