Tip #3: Homemade Laundry Detergent

If you follow my other blog, you've already seen this. However, I'm completely obsessed with this tip that I have to post it here as well! I was tired of spending money on laundry detergent, and I really like the idea of making homemade items (when it saves money), so making my own laundry detergent was a no brainer after I read all the reviews. For the sake of getting to the point, I'm not going to break down the cost for you. There a plenty of other blogs that you can find that will do that (trust me this is cheaper!). I would avoid making  the liquid detergent that you'll find out on the web because it seems pretty messy to make and the only liquid you add is water. Just let the washing machine add the water for you :)

Here's what it takes:

1. 1 box of Borax (laundry aisle)

2. 1 box of Super Washing Soda (laundry aisle)

3. 3 bars of Fels-Naptha soap (laundry aisle)

4. 1 box of Oxy Clean

5. 2 boxes Baking Soda (baking aisle)

*I wish I remembered the correct sizes of the boxes in ounces, but hopefully the picture below helps (and there aren't too many size options).

You need a pretty big container for it since it makes a ton! Michael and I looked forever for the perfect container and he stumbled across this filing cabinet thingy and it works perfectly! The lid is secure and works great! For a laundry scoop we found those little condiment containers at Walmart for 88 cents, but later found out that the Oxy Clean has a little scoop in it which we now use.

You can either use a cheese grater to shred up the 3 bars of soup, or you can put it in the food processor. I actually went with the food processor, but next time will probably use the cheese grater as I think it was too rough for the food processor.

Then, dump all the "ingredients" together and mix well. Here's a picture before we started mixing:

It took me a while to post this blog because I wanted to make sure the soap worked well and clothes were actually getting clean and it's great! I only use between 1 and 2 Tablespoons of this stuff so I won't have to make more of this in probably a year! I spent more up front for this stuff, but long term it's much cheaper and from what I've read, it works better.

Horray for clean clothes, saving money, and fun experiments :)