Homemade laundry detergent...Easy peasy.

I was afraid that they wouldn't let me use this blog anymore since it's been so long since I last posted!  I originally started this blog to talk about teaching and my adventures but I have so many things that I enjoy talking about. :)  

I have been working on many home improvement projects around the house and trying new ideas.  The newest idea that I tried was making my own laundry detergent.  My mom made her own liquid formula for a while but it was annoying and ugly while stored in bulk (5 gallon bucket in the bathroom anyone?).  

She tried again after finding this post on Pinterest, tweaked it a bit and gave some to my husband and I.  We loved it!  I was bummed when it ran out because I figured that it would take me FOREVER to make or have some random ingredients so I didn't even attempt it.  

I was wrong!!!!  I decided to give it a go...and it went well!  For some reason, finding the ingredients (all 3 of them) was difficult.  I went to Target first and only found the Borax (and the pretty jar it ended up in but I don't consider that an ingredient).  Instead of putting the Borax back I decided to buy it anyway, which was a good thing because Wal-mart only had the baking soda and Fels Naptha soap...no Borax in sight.  Oy vey.

So, here's what you need to get started:  three 5.5 oz bars of Fels Naptha soap (approx. 16 oz total), eight 16 oz boxes of baking soda (I found 76 oz boxes, so I only had to buy two), one 76 oz box of Borax, a bucket to mix in, a cheese grater and an optional "prettified" container to store it in.

First, grate the bars of soap into the bucket using the cheese grater.  I thought that my pieces may have been a little too long so I crunched them up a bit using my hands.

Second, pour the box of Borax into the bucket.  Mix the soap and Borax well with your hand.  I took my wedding and Memere ring off while I did this.  I didn't think it would hurt them, but better safe than sorry!

Third, mix in each box of baking soda well.  I mixed for a couple of minutes to make sure that everything was evenly distributed.

Once everything was mixed well, I used an old cottage cheese container to scoop the mixture into my "prettified" container.

I had enough for two containers!  You only need about 2 tablespoons of the mixture per load.  The directions I gave my handsome husband were, "Big load, two scoops.  Little load, one scoop."  I have to make things super simple for him to adopt them as habits. :)

When all was said and done, this took me 20 minutes and cost $12 for the ingredients and bucket. The "prettified" container was around $7.50 at Target.

Let's see how long this lasts us!