Laundry Soap

A couple of weeks ago I ran out of laundry soap and instead of going out and buying another gigantisauras box of soap from the store, I decided to try making my own. I did a bit of research into stain lifters, laundry boosters and the cost associated with it and jumped forward. Overall, we were very pleased with the results and will keep on making it. Here is the recipe that we used and the information that came with it.

16 cups water
1 Bar of Fels Naptha Bar Soap
1 Cup Washing Soda
1 1/2 Cups Borax

"Use Stainless Steel or Enamel Pan. Bring water to boil and turn off heat. Grate up soap bar with cheese grater, add to water and stir until dissolved. (I used the stainless steel and it dissolved and set up much faster than my mom's did in the enamel pan.) Stir in Washing Soda and Borax. Stir every 30 minutes until it becomes thick. Completely cool and pour in a storage container.

*Use 1/2 cup per load.
*OK for front loaders.
*Stirring is very important.

You can use Ivory Soap or any other brand you like. The Fels Naptha is all I have tried as it is for stain treatment on clothes in the bar form. It is a fairly large bar of soap and my mom said her friend made the batch using only 1/2 a bar and it worked great. I am going to try 1/2 bar Fels Naptha and 1/2 bar of Ivory in my next batch. This will save even more money."

I read other people were making the same recipe and added an extra gallon of water to it and it worked fine. It does make a very thick gel soap.