Homemade Laundry Soap

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I finally got around to making my own laundry soap!  I’ve had the ingredients to make this for months and have just put it off.  My dear friends, Corrie & Lora, have been using this recipe for awhile now and both love it.  They are saving quite a bit of money as each load costs about 3 cents.  The three ingredients cost under $10 and will make MANY batches of the recipe.  So, goodbye to expensive laundry soap boxes!  🙂  Enjoy and let me know if you decide to try it out!

Homemade Laundry Soap

Ingredients:
Bar soap – Ivory, Zote, or Fels Naptha (Iused Ivory but I’ve heard Zote adds a nicer smell)
Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda)
20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Booster

Recipe:
1/3 bar soap
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax powder
2 gallon bucket

Grate the soap (with a vegetable peeler) into a large sauce pan.  Add 6 cups water and heat until the soap melts.  Add the washing soda and borax and stir until dissolved.  Remove from heat.  Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket.  Add the soap mixture to the bucket and stir.  Next add 1 gallon plus 6 cups water and stir.  Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel.  Use 1/2 cup per load. 

*Optional: If you want your soap to have some sort of scent you can add 1/2 to 1 oz. essential oil or fragrance oil of your choice. 

**A few things to note about the soap:  The finished soap will not be a solid gel.  It will be more of a watery gel that has been accurately described as an “egg drop soup” look.  The soap is a low sudsing soap.  Suds are not what does the cleaning, it is the ingredients in the soap.

2 thoughts on “Homemade Laundry Soap”

  1. Jess,

    I bought the ingredients to make homemade laundry soap last summer. =) The recipe I’ve been PLANNING to try is similar to this, but you don’t add any liquid, you just mix the dry ingredients. This seems like a ton of water–does it really take 2+ gallons?!

  2. Yes, it’s quite a bit of liquid, but seems to work fine. I know there’s a recipe out there for a dry version, too. I’m assuming the liquid kind would last longer because it’s diluted down, but I don’t know. Anybody else have thoughts on this?

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