Loads of fun....

As you know we are working on saving a dollar here and there.  I had heard of this homemade laundry detergent craze so I thought we'd give it a try. The ladies at Bee Fruitful Farm and their mother were happy to share the info.  You can visit their blog here. We've been using it for about two weeks now and are pretty happy with it.  Here's how you do it.....

For your laundry detergent you will need:
1 1/2 Cups Borax
1 1/2 Cups Washing Soda
1 1/2 Bar Colgate Octagon Soap
5 gallon bucket- with lid
previously used laundry detergent container

The borax is around $4.00 and the Washing Soda about $7.00 at Walmart.  The soap is harder to find, I found ours at Food Lion it was around $.89. 

Start by chopping your soap, shredding it would be best, but I got lazy and excited so I just chopped it up. 

Add soap to saucepan on the stove and melt over low heat.  You can add water to the mixture to make it easier to stir ( I did).

After mixture is COMPLETELY melted.  Pour into the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. (B got ours at Lowe's Hardware, if your lucky and have access to those that flour or sugar comes in that works best for storage)  Immediately pour in  1 1/2 cups of Borax, and 1 1/2 cups of washing soda.  Stir to dissolve powders.  Then fill up the 5 gallon bucket the rest of the way with water. Stir very good, I used a paint stirrer... but I've heard the back scratchers from the dollar store work great for this :) .

Have someone big and strong help you funnel the solution into a bottle that you've saved.  If you forgot to save your bottle any plastic container will work, just make sure it had laundry safe ingredients in it previously.  Use the same amount of this solution as you would other laundry detergent.  It has a clean smell but it's not overpowering. You can add essential oils if you wish to the mixture but I'm ok with just smelling clean.  Make sure to give the jug a good shake before you use it each time. Store covered. 









And like I said, Make sure to have a strong farm hand standing by to carry that bucket for you!