This past Fall, I decided to try a Pinterest project to use as homemade Christmas gifts. I started the project in October with a goal of being completed by Thanksgiving. I chose to make homemade laundry soap because I have heard its a great way to make fresh natural laundry soap for a fraction of the costs at the store.
I loosely followed a recipe from HowDoesShe.com. I loved this recipe because it listed amounts per the box sizes found in stores! So helpful!
1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax
1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
6 (5.5 oz) bars of Fels-Naptha soap
1 (4 lb) Box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (I measured my own from a big bag we had from Costco)
1-2 (55 oz) Bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener
I also added a bit of Oxi Clean but not as much as the original called for.
I think my rough estimation for cost of these supplies was around $20. The Oxi Clean is the most expensive which is why I only used a small amount.
The first and only major step in this process is the grate the blocks of soap. Many suggested doing it manually with a cheese grater but there is no way I could do that while chasing DJ around. So I got out the food processor!
A few posts I read mentioned to put a bit of the baking soda by the blade so the soap wouldn’t get mushy. I had the grater blade at the top and turned it on and slowly pushed the bar of soap down. I found that the slower I pushed was actually the better because it made for finer shavings.
The next tip I read which was great was to “layer” your ingredients in a large 5 gallon bucket. I have some large mixing bowls and there was no way they would be big enough to hold all this.
It looked all pretty in the bucket with the purple crystals and the light yellow soap shreds! I used it for a month and made sure it worked well. I found that I had to use about 1/3-1/2 cup per load in my HE front loader machine (more than I typically would have thought to use) but it worked really well! Once I knew it was safe to use, I packaged it up and handed it out for Christmas gifts! I found the little buckets and scoops at the dollar tree.
