One of the things I do for the environment, and my budget, is make my own laundry soap. It’s really not hard. Here’s how you do it.
(Image borrowed from Soaps Gone Buy)
This is my favorite recipe that I got from Soaps Gone Buy.
Powdered Laundry Detergent
1 cup grated Fels Naptha Soap
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup 20 mule team borax
Mix and store in airtight container or bag. For light or small loads, use 1 tablespoon. For normal loads, use 2 tablespoons. For heavy loads, use 3 tablespoons.
To make a large batch – grate 6 bars of Fels Naptha Soap and then add 3 cups of Washing Soda and 3 cups of 20 Mule Team Borax. Mix well and store in covered container.
I always make the large batch. Takes 15 minutes and lasts for about 2 months. Using this soap cuts the cost of your load to about .15 cents!
Now, I did recently run into a problem trying to make this up. I was buying my Fels Naptha from a local grocery store. I think the bars must have been sitting in storage for a while because they were dry and very easy to pulverize in my food processor. Then I decided to go ahead and buy a case of soap from Soaps Gone Buy. Their soap is fresh. Now, ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a bad thing, but I found that fresh soap doesn’t break up well in the food processor. I broke 2 little processors trying to grate one bar of soap!
I went out and bought a new, large food processor. It still didn’t break this stuff up! So I emailed the very nice people at Soaps Gone Buy to ask for help. I got a reply telling me to grate the soap, freeze it, then process it with the powders (borax & washing soda) through the food processor. Viola! It worked. She also mentioned that you can cut the bars into chunks, or grate, then just leave them out on a tray under a fan. This will also dry the soap enough to send through the food processor.
Either way, it’s a simple way to help save my budget and the environment.
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