Welcome back to 31 Days to Building a Cleaning Routine!

Day 25: Homemade Laundry Detergent

I can’t believe how easy this was! I chose a recipe #3 from One Good Thing, who originally got it from Why not Sew. I love that I could do it all within a big pot on the stove (without getting a  gallon bucket with a lid, etc.)!

You will need:

- 1 bar of soap (any kind you want)

- 1 cup of Borax (found at Walmart

- 1 cup of washing soda (found at Walmart or local grocery store)

- a big pot (that holds more than 2 gallons)

- a food processor or grater

- a funnel

- a long spoon

- 2 empty gallon jugs/containers

Step 1: Grate the bar of soap.

I used a food processor and was done in 20 seconds!!

How easy was that? 

Step 2: Dump the grated soap and 1 gallon of water in a 2 gallon pot.

Heat on medium until the grated soap dissolves.

Or, you can THINK you have a 2 gallon pot, when in reality it only holds 1 gallon of liquid….
Don’t worry, I had a plan B.

Step 3: Add the Borax and washing soda.

Bring to a boil. It will coagulate.

Step 4: Turn off the heat. Add 1 gallon of cold water. Stir well.

OR, in my case. Add half of a gallon of cold water to another container, then dump half of the soap mixture into that container. Then, add half of a gallon of cold water to the pot on the stove. Ta-da!

It worked so well, I’ll probably do it the same way again. (Especially since I don’t have a 2 gallon pot.)

Step 5: Using a funnel, pour the laundry detergent into your gallons containers.

Now you have 2 gallons of homemade laundry detergent!! I have been using 1/2 cup per load, and it works just fine. I may try another laundry detergent recipes sometime, but for now I’m really happy with this one.

See you tomorrow,

© 2012, Betsy Pool. All rights reserved.