Homemade Laundry Detergent

I cannot tell you how fast and easy it is to make your own laundry detergent! This is my second time to make the following recipe and my last batch lasted our family FIFTEEN months. In my experience it cleans just as well as the store bought variety. I highly recommend it. Not only does it make me feel like June Cleaver, it also washes my clothes for pennies a load!

Here's the recipe I use (Thanks, Duggar Family!), along with a pictorial play-by-play:

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

I found all of the ingredients, minus the lavender, on the aisle with the laundry detergent at Wal-Mart for less than I would spend on a container of detergent. (The washing soda and borax will make multiple batches of this recipe.)