Homemade Laundry Soap How To

Hey all! It's been awhile since we had a tutorial, eh? I finally had a chance to make some laundry soap over winter break! I had made it quite frequently before but once I returned to work I didn't have time for it. .

The recipe comes originally from Arkansas Soaper. I don't make as much at one setting as she did, so my measurements are
3 Cups Borax
2 Cups Baking Soda
2 Cups Washing Soda
2 Cups Grated Soap

The washing soda is sodium carbonate and is found in the pool cleaning department of any major retailer. For the grated soap, I use handmade soap I buy from some fabulous sellers. I usually buy mine from CosmicCleanBody  If you have a favorite handmade soaper, see if they will sell you their "uglies"...the soaps that aren't quite up to par but still smell lovely.

I followed her directions for the powdered soap, and she is very correct that it's way easier if you grate the soap with a salad shooter. I too found mine on Ebay and it works great.

 Isn't the grated soap pretty?

Once the soap is grated, and your powdered items are measured out (wear a mask to keep from inhaling the borax and washing soda.) I add a bit of soap and a bit of powdered materials into a blender to blend it super fine, so it washes correctly.

Follow her directions and pulse the blender to grind up the ingredients. This keeps it all soft and powdery!

Once it's all grated up and in your storage container, give it a few shakes (see the layers in mine, that means it needs to be shook up) and you're good to go! She suggests using 1/8 cup per load.

Depending on where you buy your soap from, this laundry detergent is far far cheaper than store bought and much greener. I have heard some people add oxi-clean, which I would probably suggest if you had any athletes in your house or garden, or anything particularly messy. I find this one works well for us, I even used in back in my cloth diapering days.

Hope this saves you some pennies in the new year for laundry!

~~Amy