Things to Try Thursday-Liquid Laundry Detergent

I have seen many people out in blog land making their own laundry!!  How cool is that...I decided to give it a try.

I found the recipe I used over at My Frugal Lifestyle.  If you have never been there...you really should go.  There are great beauty tips, cleaning tips, and much more.  I love to see the new things I can do around my house with her tips.

What you need:
1 cup of Borax 20 mule team
1 cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Powder
1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap
      **  I had a hard time finding the first two ingredients.  You can find them on line, or I had luck at my local Ace Hardware...one of the last places I would have ever thought to look.

Start by shredding the bar of soap into a pot.

Fill the pot with 6-8 cups of warm water.  I used 6.  Heat on warm until the soap has dissolved.

Then add the two powders and stir until mixed.

Pour the solution into a 5 gallon bucket.  Fill the bucket up with warm water to 3 inches from the top.  This is a lot of water!!

Stir the solution once more.

Transfer the detergent into containers.  You will want to have several on hand.  I used some clean tea jugs until I can acquire more detergent jugs.

I have used this already and it does a great job.  You will use 1/2 to 1 cup of detergent per load.  This is more than you would use for normal detergent, but you get way more of this detergent than what you buy at the store.  I got 4 1/2 jugs of detergent and I think it cost about $2.50-$3.00 to make a batch of this detergent.  This is WAY cheaper than buying detergent at the store.  Head on over to My Frugal Lifestyle and check out her Q and A on this detergent.  She says this is good for HE machines too, just in case you were wondering!

Happy Laundering...I think this is an oxymoron...there is nothing happy about doing laundry :)