Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

Melting the bar of soap

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

       Being a family of 8, plus my parents, and I do the office laundry for our chiropractor, we go through a lot of laundry soap. I had been buying the Ecos laundry soap from Sam's Club. It is about 2 gallons and is around $14. A friend of mine mentioned on Facebook one day that she was enjoying looking at recipes on the Duggar Family's website. That got me thinking that I really needed to check out their recipe for the homemade liquid laundry soap. I had thought about it on and off for several years. I finally got on the computer (I had sworn to myself that I wasn't going to get on that day, hee hee) and looked up the recipe. I clicked on the link they had to a store that sold the Arm & Hammer Washing soap, but they were out of it. So I went to Amazon.com to check it out.

      Well, it seems that many other people have done the same search because they had clumped all three items together for me, how convenient! I thought it was a great deal at $16 for all three items; the bar of soap, the Borax, and the Arm & Hammer Washing Soap. Not too bad and I didn't have to go anywhere to find it. Duh, I forgot to check the individual prices for shipping. Once I figured that out, it was too late, and my $16 was now $33 because of shipping. Darn it! My best friend has made this same recipe. She tells me after I purchased these items that she spent around $6 for all the ingredients. Ahhh.... Talk about rubbing salt on an open wound! ;-) But now I know better.

      Next time I make it, all I need is the bar of soap because I have plenty of Borax and Arm & Hammer Washing soap left. I still am going to save a lot of money by making this laundry soap!

Here are a few pictures of our adventure and I am going to include our recipe, I tweaked mine some. Enjoy!!

A. with the final product, so proud!

S.A. grating the bar of soap

S.M. grating the bar of soap

  Recipe:

1 bar of Fels-Naptha (grated)
1/2 c. 20 Mule Team Borax
1 c. Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (only this one)
3 scoops of Oxi-Clean powder
4 c. boiling water
40-50 drops of Essential Oil of Orange (any scented oil that you like)
3 gallons of warm water

1. Grate the whole bar of soap- I used the Fels-Naptha. Put on 4 c. water in a sauce pan to boil. Once it is boiling, turn it down to half the heat. Start adding the grated soap slowly til it is all added and melted. I used a bamboo spoon that I can put in the dishwasher, so it wouldn't take on the soap taste afterwards.

2. Fill up a 5-gallon bucket with around 3 gallons of warm water. (I purchased the bucket and lid-yes you have to purchase them seperately, for $3.50 at Lowe's)

3. Pour the Borax and Washing Soda in the 5-gallon bucket and stir til it is dissolved. Add the oxi-clean and stir again til it is dissolved.

4. Pour in the melted bar of soap into the 5-gallon bucket. Stir it. 


5. Add the drops of essential oil of Orange or any scent that you like, ie. Lavender and stir again.


6. Place the lid on the bucket and let it set up overnight.


7. Fill an old liquid laundry soap container half full with the homemade soap.


8. Fill the rest with water. (this was what was suggested in the Duggar's recipe. My best-friend just uses it straight, that part is up to you.)


Now you have laundry soap for a long time, even longer if you aren't washing laundry for 10 people and an office! Still, either way, you save lots of money, and you can control what goes into your laundry.