We do a lot of laundry in our house. My husband's work gets his clothes really dirty, we have two children that can be sitting still and get dirty, and two acres of land that stick to our shoes and clothes every time we're out there - and we're out there a lot.
Being a stay-at-home mom, I am always looking for ways our family can save money. So when my friend, Josey Bozzo told me she was making her own laundry detergent, I thought I'd try it too! My friend found the original recipe on a neat blog I hope you'll visit, called Being Creative To Keep My Sanity.
I purchased the ingredients for this laundry detergent at our local grocery store and it cost me $22.00. Since I only need to use 1 to 2 Tablespoons of detergent per load it should last me six to nine months. That is a huge savings over the expensive commercial detergents I used to use that became empty so quick I started checking them for holes!
Here's what you'll need to make your own laundry detergent:
- 3 bars Fels-Naptha soap
- 1 4 lb. 12 oz. box of Borax
- 1 55 oz. box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
- 1 4 lb. box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
- 1 3 lb. container of Oxi Clean
- cheese grater
- 5 gallon bucket
- large trash bag
*All ingredients are found in the laundry isle except for the baking soda, which you can find in the baking isle of your local grocery store.
Simply grate the three bars of Fels-Naptha soap into a trash bag lined bucket. I don't enjoy grating and usually end up grating the skin off my knuckles, so my Mom was kind enough to do this for me. I use a dedicated cheese grater for this project.
Now, one by one, add the other ingredients into the trash bag lined bucket.
Tie off your trash bag, remove from bucket and gently roll it around to mix the ingredients. Untie and pour into a container with a lid.
There is some dust that kicks up while adding and mixing the powders. So you may want to wear eye protection, and/or a dust mask. This recipe couldn't be any easier to make and it makes A LOT of laundry detergent!
Just a note, I have seen smaller amounts of this homemade laundry detergent sell on etsy.com for $5.00 to $25.00.
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There are about 196 countries in the world, and my goal is to take the whole world on a creative journey one project at a time. So I want to offer many thanks to all my readers in 78 different countries so far...
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Trinidad & Tobago, Peru, Ghana, Estonia, Dominica, Nepal, Norway, Slovakia, Croatia, Algeria,
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Many Blessings,
Jana : )
