Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've been seeing recipes for making your own laundry detergent ALL over the blogosphere lately, and since I was running out of laundry detergent, thought I'd do a little research and see what all the hype was about.

A lot of times, people make their own stuff just to say they made it, but it's not actually any less expensive and doesn't actually do a good job so I was a little skeptical, but in looking around, everyone LOVED their new detergent, and it's about $2 for 40 loads...yeah...compare that to the $18-$20 you were paying for 96 loads!

AND...it's SUPER EASY!

1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1 bar Fels Naptha Soap (people say that Ivory or Dove soap works great too, but Fels Naptha is a stain remover bar soap, so I decided to stick with that brand for its stain removing value...I've got a toddler...)

Grate the Fels Naptha bar, mix it all together and you've got laundry detergent!

I found all my ingredients at the grocery store (WinCo).  Other bloggers out there also recommended the grocery store, saying that other stores didn't always have all three ingredients.

It supposedly makes about 40 loads worth of detergent (Only 1 TBSP per regular load, and 2 TBSP for a heavily soiled load.) I haven't used all mine yet, so I don't know for sure.  I DO know that my towels smell better (even the super stinky dish towels/rags) and my clothes are clean and that the Borax has so far kept its promise of being a natural color safe bleach alternative.

Find a nice container for it - ($1 at Goodwill)

And go do your laundry!  For WAY cheaper than you were doing it before!