Homemade Laundry Detergent

We finally got around to making our own laundry detergent (thanks for the inspiration Katie). It is surprisingly easy, and is a great deal cheaper than buying any of the store brands. Not to mention, this stuff is much better for the environment.

What you need (several batches can be made with 1 box of each):

Borax ($3.00 per box) Walmart or HyVee

Baking Soda ($3.00 per box) Walmart or HyVee

Washing Soda ($3.00 per box) HyVee

Bar of Soap or Fels Naptha ($.99 per bar) HyVee

You are probably thinking, "What the hell is Fels Naptha?". I thought the same thing when I found out about it, but it is apparently not that hard to find. Fels Naptha is a longer bar of soap that people use to rub out stains in clothes. You can find this in the laundry section at HyVee.

Making the laundry detergent is quite easy.

1. Start by grating up one Fels Naptha bar with a cheese grater. Make sure you use the "fine" side of the grater so the pieces are smaller.

2. Find a plastic container with a lid and easy access to scoop from. The one we found was $5.00 at Walmart and has a big flip top lid.

3. Add grated Fels Naptha (or bar of soap) to:

1 cup of Borax,

1 cup of Baking Soda

1 cup of Washing Soda

4. Start Shakin'! Mix all of the ingredients as well as you can.

5. Find a small scoop (measuring cup, coffee scoop, etc.) that holds about 2 tablespoons. Toss 2T in with a load of laundry and enjoy!

We have done a few loads of laundry with the home made detergent, and it works great.

Tip: double the recipe to 2 cups of each for 1 bar of Fels Naptha. Since the bar is larger than a normal bar of soap you are good to go. The container in the photo has 2 bars of Fels Naptha, and 4 cups of the remaining ingredients.

Thanks again Katie!