Home Made Laundry Detergent

Supplies needed:

- 20 Mule Team Borax
- Arm & Hammer washing soda (NOT baking soda)
- Fels Naptha bar soap
- 5 Gallon Bucket
- Kettle or Large pot for boiling water



Step 1) Measure and dump 2 cups Borax, and 2 cups washing soda into the bucket. Use a cheese grater and grate 2/3 of the bar of Fels Naptha as small as you can. Add that to the bucket.

Step 2) Put water in kettle/pot on stove. Once water is boiling, pour it in the bucket. Use a large whisk or serving spoon to stir the water with the ingredients in the bucket. Keep adding boiling water until the bucket is half full. Keep stirring until all the powder ingredients are dissolved, and the pieces of grated Fels Naptha are melting. Let it cool down for about an hour.

Step 3) After the Bucket is half full, and all the ingredients are melted and dissolved, stir it again and fill the rest of the bucket with cold water. Stir it for a long time, and you will notice it getting thicker. If everything goes right, your soap should end up about as thick as applesauce.

Side notes:

I bought all of my ingredients at Rural King, including a new bucket but you can also find most of these items at larger super stores.

It should take about $12.00 to buy everything you need to make four 5 gallon buckets full.

Start saving good plastic jugs to fill with your laundry soap if you don’t want to leave it in the bucket. You can even save an empty jug that store bought laundry soap came in, and refill it with your home made soap.

Use 1 cup of soap for top load washing machines, and about ½ cup for front load or high efficiency washing machines. We have a HE machine and we've never had a problem with it. It works great!

You will probably need to shake the container of soap every once in a while because it can start to separate.

This detergent is unfortunately not very good for cloth diapers. The Fels Naptha can cause the diapers to repel.