I have never made laundry soap.

[craftymom0263]

I would love to save some money by making laundry soap. I have no idea how to even begin this idea. Looking for an easy recipe. I also need to know what the abbreviations mean if you use them in the replies. Thank you.

 

[Seawolfe]

The soap I make for my laundry soap is the half crisco half coconut oil one from here: http://chickensintheroad.com/house/crafts/a-laundry-bar/
I ran the recipe through soap calc to have only 0.5% superfat.
All I do is grate the soap and mix in a 2:1 ratio by volume with borax and washing soda (got that from here: [ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KnWUeDqmrd4[/ame] ) So for every 2 cups grated soap I add 1 cup borax & 1 cup washing soda. Leaves our clothes and linens clean and soft, and cleared up hubby's dermatitis, he was reacting to something in the commercial detergents. Even used it on our down comforter, worked a treat.

I also made a batch of this dry mix with fells Naptha soap, that you can buy. That works well too, but I like mine better (no scent). I also tried the liquid one where you dissolve the soap in hot water first and meh, it seperates and doesn't clean any better, and takes more room. The dry dissolves just fine in my front loading washer, and I only use 2 tablespoons per load.

There's a LOT of different suggestions online with different ratios and some add baking soda, or oxyclean. Try them and experiment.

Now there are geniuses here that make liquid soap from scratch, but I'm not there yet.

 

[bluelilyboutique]

Personally I do not like the liquid mainly cause it gells and my kids forget to shake the bottle. But it just seemed like more work than needed. The refilling the bottles was a pain but that's just personal issue. Lol I love the dry I use zote (pink) or fels napha. I haven't mAde my own yet. I've made lots of smelly soap just not laundry bar. But the liquid cleaned just as good. Both ways saves you tons of money.

 

[Seawolfe]

Yea at first I was all gung-ho about liquid laundry soap made from grated, but once I realized the dry dissolves just fine, I don't see the point in adding water.

While I like saving money(who doesn't?), I'm more driven by not having an itchy hubby any more.

 

[bluelilyboutique]

Yes same here. I make a large thing of it and I don't worry about for like 6 months. Laziness maybe. Lol

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Just offering another option here. I worry about my liquid detergents dissolving in my machine (combination cold wash and a very low water pressure coming in), so I never even bothered with the dry soaps in this machine.

This is the soap I've made, though I subbed out canola for the lard. As a disclaimer, I haven't used it yet. I'm using up the last of my storebought detergent, and only have a couple loads left in the bottle.

[ame]http://youtu.be/_TpYqYDU5vU[/ame]

 

[mel z]

Instead of making a giant container of the gloopy type, just make it dry. When it is time to wash clothes, you can heat up a cup of water, put in heat safe container and mix in the dry mix to dissolve. This step is generally not needed, as I have used the dry mix in cold water and it still all dissolved, no soap bits stuck on laundry. Just a suggestion, and keeps from having to buy a preservative for 5 gallons of liquid stuff sitting around.

 

[DeeAnna]

With the powdered laundry soap, just try to get it powdered up as finely as you can. A fine powder dissolves pretty well, even if you wash in an HE washer with cold water, like me.

I use a food processor. First grate the soap with the grater attachment, then switch to the blade to chop the grated soap into small particles. The soap wants to become warm and gummy when processing with the blade, so add a handful or two of any of the other powders with each batch of soap to prevent that problem. Also don't overfill the processor bowl. I process with the blade for about 30 seconds per batch.

 

[lizflowers42]

DeaNna, do you use just soap alone to wash with, or do you add borax/washing soda?

 

[hismrsfinnegan]

I have been making home made laundry soap for about 3 years now and I love it. It is especially wonderful for people with extra sensitive skin. (it was a blessing when my husband had Chemo treatments and needed something very delicate. It is so delicate yet does a great cleaning job that I make it for friends with new babies as gifts). It's so easy to make and actually this is the first time I have almost run out - kids are learning to do their own laundry, guess they don't realize the meaning of CONCENTRATED! I use FelsNaptha, Borax and A&H washing soda. Mix it all up in a bucket with BOILING WATER and take out my stick blender and go to town. I do a 5gal bucket that can be diluted down to as many as 15 gal. I was all ready to make a new batch this weekend and the kid broke my Food Processor, getting HIM to grate the soap by hand.

 

[Seawolfe]

Hubby just washed his incredibly grubby bike bag / messenger bag in our home made dry laundry soap. It got WAY cleaner than the last time he tried it with commercial detergent - looks brand new. I really wasn't expecting that.

 

[craftymom0263]

How much borax and Arm & hammer soda wash do I use for the dry laundry soap?

 

[Seawolfe]

I use 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda for every 2 cups of grated soap. This works very well for me, but the information available online varies wildly.
I use 2 Tbsp of this for every load, works fine in my HE front loader. For top loaders I'd guess you use 2-4 Tbsp.

 

[Stellagirl]

Laundry Soap

I love using the Zote soap (instead of the
Fels Naptha)...smells awesome and gets clothes clean and leaves a nice fragrance.

 

[DeeAnna]

Liz -- I use a blend. The powders I mentioned are washing soda and borax.