Homemade Laundry Detergent from Homemaking911

My mother started making my family's laundry soap back in 2008. We were not sure how it would turn out, but thought we would give it a try. I thought it was odd, but was willing to go along for the adventure and see how it worked. We found that it did not take much time to make, only about fifteen minutes per batch, it cleaned just as well as the name brand detergents, our clothes still smelled good, and it did not cause problems in the high efficiency washing machine.

So we tried it and took pictures of every step to show others how easy it is to do at home and to show you what the mixture looks like at every stage. We originally posted them on her website Homemaking911, you can find the original post here. 

We purchased three ingredients at a total cost of under $11.00. This will make 8 batches of liquid laundry soap.
Soap (You need one bar per batch). We chose Ivory. If you use Fels Naptha, you will use less, about 1/3 of a bar.
Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (Available in the laundry area)
20 Mule Team Borax (Available in the laundry area)

Step One: Shred, chop or shave your soap into small pieces.

Step Two: Measure and start heating water. You will need 6 cups of water heated to melt the soap in a sauce pan. Add the soap and water to the pan.

Step Three: Once the soap is all dissolved, you stir in half a cup of Borax and half a cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda. Stir over the heat until it is all dissolved.

Step Four: Remove from heat and pour into a large bucket. I used a five gallon bucket, but a smaller bucket would have been just fine.

Step Five: Add four cups more of hot water to the bucket and stir until well blended.

Step Six: Add one gallon plus six cups of cold water to the mixture. Mix well. Let sit for 24 hours.

Store it in your old laundry soap bottle or other plastic container for easy pouring.

Ready to use! I used 1/4 of a cup because I have a high efficiency machine. Most would probably use half a cup. It looks like a liquid gel. A few notes from Christina: I love using our homemade laundry soap. I can change the smell of the soap to any scent I like by changing the bar soap I use for a batch. Just a note: if you add powdered Tide to the mixture for the smell, I personally love the smell of Tide, it simply sinks down to the bottom of the mixture but never dissolves. This was a bit of a disappointment, but the laundry soap still turned out great and the last few loads did smell like Tide. Another nice thing to note is that if you want your laundry soap to gel, leave it in an unsealed container overnight. It works best if it is stored in a cool place, but anywhere room temperature works just fine. Sometimes the consistency varies somewhat, some batches are almost slimy, others are more of a gel, while some are more of a liquid. This does not affect the quality of the soap at all. I have had the strangest looking batches, one was bright pink from using a pink bar of soap, and I have never had an issue with the quality of the clothes. The whites washes in the pink batch of soap still turned out as white as ever, much to my relief! Enjoy your homemade laundry soap! If you try it let me know how it worked for you!