Homemade Laundry Detergent

In our small household we go through so much laundry detergent with all the loads of laundry we do with 2 littles AND cloth diapering! The cost of detergent is so expensive so I started looking into making my own. 

My mother in law makes her own and so she let me have some to try it out on Brandons work clothes that smell because of the environment he works in (even though it's an office building-it reeks) as well as his workout clothes. I washed them all in her detergent and they came out smelling great! I was definitely impressed.

So as soon as I finished my box of Gain I had been using, I spent about an hour making the laundry detergent with the 3 simple ingredients that Louanne just GAVE me! They are really cheap anyways and you can get it all at Walmart or Kroger!

The "hardest" part of the whole process was grating the bar of soap-and that wasn't even "hard"! I now have a 5 gallon bucket sitting in my basement that will allow me to fill up my detergent container many times-making a total of 10 gallons of soap. I think we are set on laundry detergent for quite some time. :)

This is the recipe that I followed. And here are some step by step photos of my process!

http://www.duggarfamilyblog.com/2011/03/duggar-recipe-liquid-laundry-soap.html?m=1

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

(Front or top load machine-best value)

Ingredients: 

4  Cups - hot tap water

1  Fels-Naptha soap bar*

1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda**

½ Cup Borax

Directions: 

-Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Grating the soap

Melting it.

Adding and stirring in the washing soda and borax.

Last step! Filling it the rest of the way up with water and then letting it sit over night!

I did add some lavender essential oil to it to give it a slight lavender smell.

And that's it! Laundry soap for a lonnnng time! I'm very pleased :)

Book Review #3

I had the privilege once again to review a book for bloggingforbooks.org. 

A Love Undone is a different sort of Amish romance. 19 year old Jolene is very ambitious and spunky and through a series of events is left virtually alone with just her siblings having her heart broken and shattered in many different ways. This book shows more than the "romantic" side of the Amish life, a side you don't see too often in these types of books!

Her journey during this book is inspiring with the many ways she picks up and goes and her strength is displayed in such tremendous ways. You easily fall in love and become attached to the characters of this book and rightfully so! There are quite a few twists in this book which makes it intriguing and fast paced.