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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

SOAP

So after my friend Jen posted about making laundry detergent we have been thinking about doing that to save some money. Who knew that it was so easy!!! Really!!! A little this and some of that and wholla, there you have it. Jen posted directions over at her place, but I'll post what we did here.

One bar of soap. We used plain Ivory.
1-3/4 cup of Borax {found at Target in the laundry section}
1- 3/4 cup of Washing soda {we finally found this at Publix. Again in the laundry area}
Water

Grate, chop or food process the soap and put into a pot with about 4-6 cups of water, and melt over medium heat.

While that is going fill a 5 gallon bucket with hot water {just tap water} about half way full. After the soap is melted add to the bucket of water. Mix it in. then add the Borax and washing soda. {NOTE... it HAS to say 'Washing Soda'} Mix all together.

Put lid on and let sit over night. The next day open up. You'll find that it has separated and it will be really gloppy. Just mix it together again. Then you can put it in a container. {I just washed out a laundry bottle that I had used up} You only need about a 1/4 of a cup per load. It does a great job!! All the clothes come out really clean and smell fresh. There are many other recipes out there this is our version.



Along with laundry detergent we also made liquid soap. Again SOOO easy!!!

2 bars of soap. {again we used Ivory... Ivory with aloe}
Water

Chop, grate, or food process the soap, and mix it with 4 cups of water. Melt on medium heat, if it bubble just set it off to the side until the bubble subside. Fill a 3 gallon bucket half way with water. After the soap mixture is melted add to the bucket of water.

 Again, let sit over night and it will thicken up. We are using this for hand as well as body soap. {it's just an Ivory soap} We put it in pumps for the boys, and I'm going to try to get to see how id does in a foam pump.


The 2 buckets together with lids was $13. {which we can use over and over again}
All ingredients for soap and detergent... under $10. We have enough ingredients for 4 more batches of laundry soap {5 gallons each batch!} and 8 more batches of liquid soap.

{thanks Jen for the idea :)}

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good stuff, huh? Makes me wonder why I spent so many years buying laundry soap in the store. I just found out that the ratio for foam soap is 1 part liquid soap to 6 parts water. We've been refilling our foam pumps with it the last few times and it works great!

Amy said...

I've been thinking about doing this for a long time, but I haven't yet. My hold up? I'm super picky about how my laundry comes out smelling. I'm not a fan of the smell of ivory. I LOVE the stong clean smell of Arm & Hammer laundry det. So... how does the homemade one smell?

Rob, Brooke, Caleb, Sophie and Jake said...

This is so cool! You can't beat a savings like that!! I've read about how much you can save when you make your own detergents and cleaning supplies. I have all these ivory soap bars that I got for pennies a few months ago that are just sitting in the back of the closet because we don't like bar soap. Now I know what I can do with them!

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