The Great Laundry Experiment

When Tim and I decided to do cloth diapers, we also chose to start making our own laundry soap to clean them with because we knew we would be doing a lot more laundry. The cost of making your own soap is just a fraction of the cost of buying detergent, and we’ve found that it works just as well. Soon after we started using our cloth diaper soap recipe, we tried making liquid laundry detergent for the rest of our clothes. So far, so good.

A few of our friends have asked for our tips and recipes, so here they are:

Cloth diaper soap recipe:
1 cup Borax
1 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda
1 cup Oxyclean (original)

Cloth diaper laundering:
-Store soiled diapers in a dry pail (shaking out any solids if necessary)
-Wash every 2 – 3 days
-Run diapers on a rinse cycle on large load setting
-Wash diapers on hot cycle with 1 tablespoon laundry soap
-Add ½ - 1 cup vinegar to the rinse cycle
-Dry diapers

Liquid laundry soap recipe:
4 cups hot water
1 bar Fels Naptha soap (finely grated)
1 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda
½ cup Borax
-Add grated soap to saucepan with 4 cups water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted (will take awhile).
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken (will look kind of like snot).
-OPTIONAL - you can add 10-15 drops of an essential oil per 2 gallons to scent the soap (I've not tried this yet because I'm still trying to figure out what I want our clothes to smell like).
-When you’re ready to use the soap, fill a laundry detergent container half with laundry soap and half with water. Shake before each use. Use a half cup to 5/8 cup of soap for each load. Use ½ - 1 cup vinegar in rinse cycle.

Making your own laundry soap sounds like a huge hassle, but it has really not been a big deal. You make such a big batch at a time that it lasts for months. I would recommend it to anyone looking to trim their household budget a little or trying to be a little greener (we use the same laundry detergent container over and over).