How to make your own laundry soap and save money!

July 6, 2012 by Adrienne 3 Comments

Karen MAKES her own laundry soap.  I’ve tried her recipe and it’s great!  Not only is it fragrance-free, it’s REALLY cheap.  I’m talking about $.02 per load!  Compared with the Dreft brand I’ve been using for Baby, we save about $.62 per load.  Assuming 300 loads a year, we save $15.44 per month or $185.38 per year.  Dreft costs about $.64 per load, assuming about 25 loads per 100 fl. oz.  There is some debate here but it wouldn’t make much difference.  The Deft bottle indicates 64 loads per 100 fl. oz., but that’s wishful thinking in my opinion.  You can do your own math based on your current laundry product and number of loads.  Karen’s laundry soap costs about $2.13 per 3 gallon batch.  That’s probably underestimating the amount you get in a batch, but I’ll stick to the conservative figures.  If you come up with different figures, please let me know!  Either way, I’ll bet you’ll save!  The benefits are that I KNOW what is in my laundry soap (no unknown chemicals); I don’t have to throw away laundry bottles; and I save money.  Yippee!

Karen’s Laundry Soap

What you’ll need:

1 (3 oz.) bar of Ivory soap

1c 20 Mule Team Borax   (found at Wal-Mart)

1/2c Arm & Hammer Washing soda  (found at Wal-Mart – a powder in the laundry section)

(I ordered both the Borax and Washing soda online through our local Ace Hardware store.)

5 gallon bucket (I could only find a 4 gallon bucket, but that worked.)

a pot that holds 5 cups of water

Instructions:

Shave the Ivory soap with a carrot peeler into a pot with 5 cups of water; Bring to almost a boil, stir till almost dissolved; Add that to the 5 gallon bucket with 3 gallons of hot water; Stir thoroughly; And add 1/2 c washing soda and stir till dissolved; Add the cup of Borax and stir till dissolved; Cover container with lid or plastic and let it sit overnight; It will gel in a lumpy, watery way; Pour into empty laundry soap containers (don’t put in empty milk jugs, the plastic will leak over time).

Use 1/2 cup per normal load of clothes