Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Laundry Soap... Finally!

 I finally got around to making laundry soap! I had been putting it off, wanting to get a few other things done first, but I only have a few loads of liquid store bought soap left (I have a box of powdered, but I may save it for in case I can't afford to make liquid sometime). The whole process took maybe 30 minutes. That's shredding the soap (I used a salad shooter), boiling the soap, and mixing it all up. So easy!

I used a stockpot to melt my soap,
I was afraid it might boil over, and I was glad I did!


Before turning on the heat. This is 1 bar of Fels Naptha,
and 4 cups of hot tap water.
Boil on medium high heat. You don't want to go higher than that.
I did, it boiled pretty high!
For some reason I can't get this photo to rotate... Sorry!
This is how high it boiled, after turning it down, while stirring it!
I was very glad I used a stockpot!

All melted. I let it sit long enough to 1/2 fill the bucket with water (hot tap water).
I bought a new 5 gallon bucket for this,
as I wanted it to not have had anything else in it.
I'm sure this isn't a requirement.
I got mine at Home Depot. I spent around $5 (I think) for the lid and bucket.

This is the bucket 1/2 full of hot tap water, the melted soap,
1 cup of washing soda (NOT BAKING SODA!!!)
and 1/2 cup of Borax. Stir very well, until all the powder has dissolved.
All done! After stirring the mixture, fill the rest of the way
(I had to move mine, so I didn't fill it completely to the top...)
and then stir again. Let it sit overnight.
I won't be able to post tomorrow, since the library will be closed for the 4th, so I will try to post on Thursday after I've opened it up! I may do a load with it on Wednesday or Thursday to see how it does!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Let me know how it works. How much did all the ingredients cost? How much would you use with each load? I might want to try this.

Unknown said...

I tried Making this a couple of months ago and when I added the dry ingredients they clumped up and not all dissolved. Did I do something wrong?

Homesteader's Wife said...

@Erin - I haven't added up the cost per load, or per batch yet. I don't have the figures in front of me or I would for you right now. I will figure it up in the future though!

The Washing Soda was roughly $3-4, the Borax was roughly the same, and the Fels Naptha was $.98.

The Duggar's recipe said to use 5/8 cup in a top loader and 1/4 cup in a front loader. I think I may use a little less.

Homesteader's Wife said...

@Lynn - I didn't have any problems clumping. I'm not sure why yours would have. All I can tell you is that I put the soap in my pan first, then the water, then boiled it. Then I put it and the water in the bucket, then added the dry ingredients, and stirred. It seemed that the dry ingredients almost seemed to dissolve somewhat as they fell into the water.

Hope you have better luck with it next time you try! Sorry I couldn't help more, this was my first time!