Homemade Laundry Soap Recipe

Have you heard people say they made their own laundry soap?  Try it in your top loader.
Today a friend of mine encouraged me again to give it a try. I must admit I have been slow to warm to the idea. My reason is a silly one. Are you ready? The chunky texture puts me off. How silly.

My friends ward just made Laundry soap for each lady that came to the Relief Society activity. They gathered free buckets (bakeries are a good source) and set to work. This a very inexpensive Relief Society meeting activity.

Low Suds Laundry Concentrate- Yield 2.5 Gallons - Update below on different kinds of soap-

1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1 bar Fels-Naptha or Zote Laundry bar, grated (I like Fels Naptha)


Grate the bar of soap and add to 1 quart of water. Heat on medium low while stirring constantly to melt the soap. Next add this mixture to a large pot or bucket. Add an additional 2 gallons plus 1 quart of hot water to the container. Add the Washing Soda and the Borax to the mixture stirring to combine.
Let stand for 12 hours. After the mixture has gelled stir it well.  (If you have a family member who is tempted to use more than you'd like, dilute more.)  This is basically the Duggar's Recipe with half of the water and you use half as much.

Storage ideas-
Bucket with snug fitting lid (to keep pets and toddlers out)
Gallon Juice bottles (carefully label and keep out of children's reach)
Saved Liquid Laundry soap containers (shake prior to dispensing)


For top load washers use 1/4 cup.  I drop the soap right into the drum of my front loader bypassing the soap dispenser.
(2 Tbsp. for front loaders.)

There are many videos about making laundry soap around if you would like to investigate this further. One video suggested using saved soap from hotels. Do you hate throwing away soap slivers?? You could keep a container under the bathroom sink to collect them. It's a thought.

This soap is a great stop gap measure when your budget is lean.

Fels-Naptha-
The Fels-Naphtha version gets the clothes pretty clean.

ZOTE-
I found some Zote and used the whole bar in the above recipe. I chose to use the entire bar because someone else said that half of the Zote bar in the recipe was not as strong as the whole Fels-Naptha bar. Result... Pretty Pink Jello.  After washing with it I believe I like the Fels Naptha better.

Ivory-
Made with one bar of Ivory this soap is sort of well, wimpy. Let's just say I will not do it again.