Walking through our local big box bulk store, I starting having fits thinking about spending $40 on a couple months worth of soap for clothes and dishes. I was about to go in for surgery, and would be out of work (no pay) for at least a couple weeks, so was stressing about cutting costs. I had every intention to have made my own soaps long before now, but it took Mother Necessity and Old Man Murphy kicking me to get me started in doing so. I told the wife to put it back, we would be making out own this month. Game as always to try some of my ideas, she said, “That’s fine. We have enough to get us by until I can get back here if yours doesn’t work.”
Thanks for that vote of confidence. 🙁
In short, I made it, we tried it, it works. So well, that its almost criminal how much they charge for a nicely packaged commercial version. Those boxes and containers sure must cost a lot to make…..
Let’s step back a bit. Just a few generations back, most soap was made by hand from combining fats (lard, tallow, etc) with water filtered through hardwood ashes (lye). The process binds the lye with the fats through a process called saponification. It’s really that simple. A good guess as to how soap originated is to think greasy pan trying to be scoured out by using the wood ashes from the fire you cooked…then letting it soak together. Refine the technique a bit, add some fillers and perfumes and voila! You have Irish Spring!
RidgeRunner made a batch of lye soap about a year ago, and gave me a bar. I have used that bar of soap every time I shave, an it has lasted well over 12 months. I try to purchase a bar whenever I see the “Real Deal” at craft shows. I look for the basic, no-frills kind in a regular soap bar size. I use those for when I shower. They outlast regular store-bought soap bars by months. I guess no fillers makes it last longer. I’ll eventually make my own, as I want to try to find a blend of fats that give me a nice creamy lather, yet lasts a lot longer.
(Wow, I mostly stayed on topic there!)
So if soap is so simple to make, how hard can it be to jump into a recipe for washing clothes or dishes? If you can make Kool-Aid, you can make your own laundry and dish washing soap.
This recipe is all over the internet with subtle variations. I went with the recipe most often listed to try first. Why try to reinvent the wheel? The recipe I used:
Homemade Laundry Soap
1/3 bar Fels Naptha soap
½ cup washing soda
½ cup borax powder
a clean bucket, at least 2 gallons
- Grate the soap, the finer the better, and put it in a sauce pan.
- Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts.
- Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved.
Remove from heat.
- Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket.
- Now add your soap mixture and stir.
- Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir.
- Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel and clump up a bit.
Use ½ cup per load, shaking gently to mix before use. Each two gallon batch gives you 64 loads of washing.
Optionally, you can simply double the recipe, grind the soap very fine and mix the ingredients dry to produce a powdered laundry soap. Use 1 Tbsp per load, or 2 Tbsp for heavily soiled loads.
How does it work? Very well, actually. In fact, the best recommendation I can give is my wife asked me to make more. There is very little smell to it, so you may want to add something for that affect, keeping in mind that less is better than more when it comes to aroma. Our clothes come out looking clean and smelling clean. I prefer the lack of “foo-foo” scents myself, but to each his own…..I wonder if I could make a batch with lye soap made from bacon fat, so that all our clothes smell like bacon….Hmmmm……
Cost breaks down to about $0.02 cents per load, based on the quantities listed above and the following ingredient costs from my local Publix:
Fels Naptha soap $1.19 (1 bar = 2 batches)
Washing soda $3.19 (1 box = 13 batches)
Borax $4.39 (1 box = 21 batches)
This seems to be a significantly less expensive option to clean clothes, leaving more money to spend on other things. I believe the next couple years will be financially tough ones for many of us. Any corner we can cut will help us to keep afloat. Just in case….
Click here to read about my low cost dishwasher detergent option
Peace,
db
Awesome Post. Gonna try this first chance I get. Might try to throw some essential oil in there for scent.
Gonna throw this up on the Facebook wall.
Thanks 🙂
This is the clearest set of instructions I have seen. You have inspired me to try to make it for our household. Thanks so much!
Thanks! I thought I rambled a bit too much, but have grown used to my style. I’m glad you are inspired to give it a shot.
Check tomorrow’s post for dishwasher detergent!
Great post and instructions. I’m not crazy about the smell of the soap I made last year so I’ll try the Fels Naptha like you did. ( It’s getting hard to find anymore) BTW – Fels Naptha is great as a first treatment for poison ivy. I carry a small piece in my survival kit just for that.
The only costs you didn’t post was how much your one time purchase of buckets cost and the pan you used, but most of us can get those some how some way, so no issue there. I have to agree, one of the best posts I’ve seen! Me and my fiance are starting our lives together and I want to do as much at-home making as possible. Thank you SO much for this post!
Glad to help. I’m a firm believer that we are all in this together…may as well try to help everyone else….and hopefully, they’ll be able to offer ideas that will help me out as well.
And I had the bucket and pan already, didn’t think that should figure into my costs 🙂
db
So, I know what baking soda is. What is washing soda?
Great question…one I had to ask also. First they are NOT the same thing….however, they are very close.
Baking Soda is sodium Bicarbonate.
Washing soda is sodium carbonate.
I guess, to my hillbilly way of thinking, there are two “carbonates” in the baking soda, but only one in the washing soda.
A little research, and I found (and tried with success) how to make washing soda from baking soda. All it takes is a cookie sheet and an over set to 400 degrees.
Here is the walk-thru I used:
http://naturesnurtureblog.com/2012/05/08/ttt-turn-baking-soda-into-washing-soda/
(Thanks go out to Sarah and Penny)
And like they said in the article, you really can tell the difference in the texture, so you’ll know when its converted.
Hope this helps!
db
Washing soda can be purchased at Walmart or Publix. Very inexpensive. I do not know for sure if any other local stores sell it in my area.
You can also make your own by putting baking soda in a thin layer on a cookie sheet, then baking it at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. You will see a change in consistency, and the end result is washing soda. When baking soda is heated up to high temperatures, it breaks down to become washing soda, water steam, and carbon dioxide.
EVERY store has baking soda! And its probably less expensive than washing soda.
🙂
I make this same homemade detergent – minus the water – I use approx 1 tablespoon of dry ingredients per laundry load and clothes come out clean as can be. The fels-napa soap gives it just a little bit of scent. Thanks for posting this.
Thanks for posting a comment! I’m always happy to hear someone actually reads my stuff!
The fact that you use the same thing makes your comment even better! MY wife prefers liquid, so I made it that way…”Happy Wife, Happy Life!”
Glad it works for you too!
db
I failed to mention that I use my potato peeler to cut the soap into slivers – a lot easier and faster, than the grater for me.
A fantastic idea! Consider it stolen! 🙂
Great post. I’ve made it a few times, works awesome ! Just noticed, you have 1/3 bar fels naphtha in the recipe, yet in the cost breakdown you have 1 bar makes 2 batches. Is it a typo in one of them? Just curious. Thanks again for posting!
I use 1/2 a bar. Good catch!
Thanks for shopping at Publix!
No problem 🙂
How well does this work in the HE washing machines? I am assuming this is a low suds type of soap.
Thanks
Honest;y, I couldn’t say, as we have an “old style” washer. This stuff does suds up less than most of the commercial brands we’ve used though….
Loved the recipe but due to living in a different country i had to change the recipe and make it simpler. (super soft water lucky me) my homemade soap is a 50/50 lard and coconutoil (0%superfat) and i use baking soda instead off washing soda when my water is super soft and i need more off a cleaning effect then watersoftner.
Lots off love from Sweden (sorry for spelling, english isn’t one off my stong suits)
Glad you could make it work!