When I first heard about making your own laundry soap, I wondered if it would be worth the hassle. I’ve been making my own soap now for about 3 years. I love to make it! My husband enjoys the shampoo bar that I make so much that he doesn’t leave home without it.

The first laundry soap recipe I found intrigued me. First of all, I recognized that the ingredients were really good cleaning agents. The part that turned me off was that the soap was a liquid soap and it looked a lot like Chinese egg drop soup. In order to make a big batch of this stuff it was going to be heavy with all that water in it. The beauty of it was that it costs literally 2 or 3 cents a load. I kept looking and found a great dry ingredient soap that has the same wonderful cleaning power but stores much easier.

First of all, let me tell you what the ingredients are and why I like them so much.

1. Fels-Naptha. It is a bar of soap which I have used for years to pre-treat stains. It is heavy duty laundry bar soap and it smells so clean.

2. Borax. Borax is a natural laundry boaster and multipurpose household cleaner.

3. Washing soda. It acts as a detergent booster as well.

4. Baking soda. Baking soda is great for deodorizing but this is an optional ingredient.

5. Oxy Clean. Oxy Clean is fabric bleach; actually it is like powdered peroxide. Oxy clean helps prevent graying. This is also an optional ingredient.

The beauty of this soap is that it is inexpensive to make, has no fillers in it and it costs pennies per use. It has exceptional cleaning power, is easy to store because it’s a powder and it can be used in high efficiency machines. Try this soap on your towels and whites and you’ll see why I am so excited about it. Don’t expect any soap bubbles. Instead you’ll see the grime coming to the top right away. One of the reasons that this product is economical is because you only use 1/8 of a cup per load. That’s about 2 Tablespoons.

Laundry Soap Recipe

76 ounces Borax
76 ounces washing soda
4 bars Fels-Naptha
16 ounces baking soda
2 cups Oxy Clean

Grate the Fels-Naptha bar as fine as possible. Your food processor will do the trick or you can grate it by hand. Mix all the ingredients in a large bucket. I use rubber gloves and just start mixing.

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I also enjoy making my own fabric softener. The main ingredient is hair conditioner. Hey! If it’s good enough for your hair, it ought to be good enough for your clothes. I buy the cheapest and best smelling hair conditioner that I can find. And, just as I am saving money on my laundry soap I am also saving oodles of money on fabric softener.

Fabric Softener

2 cups (cheap) hair conditioner
3 cups water
1 cup white distilled vinegar
A few drops of essential oil (optional)

I use an empty fabric softener bottle, add the above items and shake it to mix.
The ingredients will mix together better after they set for a day or two. Sometimes I add a few drops of an essential oil just to change the smell.

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