Make Your Own Laundry Soap for Pennies Per Load and Get One Step Closer to Your Dream
Here’s my laundry soap recipe to help you be more self sufficient.
There’s a really cool project going on in Kansas City at the Urban Farming Guys.ย 20 families moved into the inner city and set up housekeeping with a motive to bring fresh vegetables and homesteading skills to the inner city.ย I absolutely love what they’re doing — check it out.
This video shows you how to make your own laundry soap.ย It’s the same recipe that I use.ย I have hard water and increase the amount of washing soda.
Here’s my Laundry Soap recipe:
10 oz. of bar soap, grated (1 use 2 bars of Goat’s milk soap — use whatever soap you want — this isn’t a beauty enhancer)
1 cup of washing soda
1 cup of borax
5 gallons of really hot water
I stop here and then store it in a 5-gallon bucket and use 2 tbsp. per wash load.ย You can follow the video and add another 5 gallons of water and store it in closed containers.ย Your laundry soap will be organic and non-toxic if you use natural soap.
Now you can take the money that you’re saving and put it toward your dream.
Thanks for the video, Urban Farming Guys.
Other posts for DIY cleaning:
I was looking evyerwehre and this popped up like nothing!
I made some laundry soap from some of my handmade, unscented soap. It uses 2 tablespoons per load and works just fine. I think it is the same recipe, just not added into liquid. I have it available at the summer market here. I have been making soap for over 25 years and it is the greatest.
Tricia
Hi, Tricia, thanks for coming by and having a look at my project. Nice to see you here. Do you use your soap as a dry, grated soap or make a gel by adding water? I used to just use my grated soap dry but found that sometimes it didn’t dissolve completely and left a white streak on my dark clothes. I find that by mixing in lots of water — I use about 20% of what they use on the video — I can avoid that.
Cheers,
Back in school, I’m doing so much leanring.
Thanks for telling your story Robbert. Its a good example of how doing things for yourself, with quality ingredients, can enhance your quality of life, as well as save you money. I will be posting a tutorial on how to make your own soap soon. Chris
Heck yeah bay-bee keep them coinmg!
I just found soap nuts on the internet last week. They sound interesting. The aboriginals used to use soopolallie berries the same way, frothing them in water to create suds — they also ate the froth and it tasted like soap — “Indian Icecream” it says in my plant book.
Not sure if importing soap nuts is eco-friendly. Soap is not harmful to the environment — its detergent that is harmful. So if you used natural soap you’d be ahead.
About 10 years ago there was a plastic ball thingy that was advertised as being a soap substitute –put it in your washing machine and you didn’t need to use detergent. Don’t hear much about them anymore. But I’m still using my homemade laundry soap — 30 years now. And it doesn’t give you dermatitis like those boxed powdered detergents.
Looking forward to hearing about your success.
Have a terrific weekend.
Didn’t know the forum rules alleowd such brilliant posts.
I also have hard water, although our house has a water softener in it. I’ve never lived with hard water before (or water softeners) so I am not too sure about all that stuff (we just moved up here in September). I will try this out soon. It looks like a great way to save money and do something good for the environment. Have you ever heard of those laundry soap nuts, actual nuts from the Chinese soapberry tree? You can just throw them in with your laundry in a cloth bag. I know there are a number of people who sell them and they are quite eco-friendly as well, although I think it would be a lot pricier.
I am so excited for my baby bunnies! I am designing their hutch now and will begin building it soon!
Very valid, pithy, succicnt, and on point. WD.
This looks great and I really want to try it! Do you know if it works in front load washing machines? I know you have to have a low-sudsing soap for them.
I have hard water so its low sudsing for me. Let me know how it goes for you. You don’t want to skimp on the water if you are going to store it in closed containers like in the video — use the full 10 gallons. The soap gels and its hard to get out of the closed containers if you don’t add the full amount of water. But I don’t has that much storage space so I use 1/2 the water and store in a big pail. It makes a gel and then you just half the amount of soap you use. You can cut the water down even more but then you are tempted to use more soap, so its a catch 22.
Thanks for commenting again, Kristen. I checked out your blog. Your chicks look really healthy. Thanks for the link to our baby bunnies.
Chris
Home run! Great slugging with that asnewr!