Clean is Clean

Last summer I caught commercial promoting the upcoming newscast; they plugged a segment on a mom who made her own laundry soap.

What!? I'd never heard of such a thing! I didn't actually see the newscast that day but I looked into homemade laundry soap recipes over the following week. I decided to give it a try and see how easy it was to make, how cheap it could be, and how well it worked.

I've made three batches now. It takes about 10 minutes to make and lasts this family of four about 1 1/2 months.

The last time I made it I calculated what I paid for each portion of the recipe and approximately how many loads it lasted. I figured out that the laundry soap costs me about $0.02 a load! That's it. Well worth my 10 minutes a month.

This is a quick post about the process of making homemade laundry soap. The recipe I've followed lately is this one but really I just google 'homemade laundry soap' and make what I come across. Maybe it's about time I add the recipe to the recipe book.

I'm not going to post the entire recipe here because you can just go to www.thefamilyhomestead.com and follow her directions.


Start with Borax, A&H Washing Soda and Fels Naptha laundry bar soap. All these items can be found in laundry sections of larger grocery stores or most drug stores.


Grate 1/3 the Fels Naptha bar into a pot.


Cook the Fels Naptha shavings in water until melted down.


Add in the Washing Soda and Borax.


Stir until all incorporated.


Pour soap mix into a bucket already containing water. Add more water and stir.

Cover and let sit 24 hours.


It comes out looking like egg soup. The first two batches I made were runnier than this batch but it all washes the same.

Use 1/2 cup per load. I keep my 5 gallon bucket of soap (only half full) and scoop on the washer. Badda-boom, badda-bing.

The clothes I wash seem just as clean as when I use the expensive, scented name brand detergents. And I'm happy I'm saving money.