How to Make Homemade Laundry Soap

Juliet ♦ April 23, 2012 ♦ Leave a Comment

This laundry soap works really well with both traditional top-load washers and high-efficiency front-load washing machines. It has a light, fresh scent that is almost undetectable after the wash cycle. It is very inexpensive to make, and produces 5 gallons of soap for each batch. The one factor to remember is that this is not heavily concentrated soap like you buy in the store.

***One load of clothes requires about ¾ to 1 cup of finished soap depending on the size of the load.

Ingredients:

1 Bar – Fels Naptha Laundry Soap Bar

1 Cup – Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda)

1 Cup – Borax

1. Grate the Fels Naptha bar with a kitchen hand grater. Add to a medium saucepan with about 8 cups of water. Heat and stir until all of the soap has dissolved. (Grating is an important step. Just cutting into pieces will now allow it to dissolve properly.)
2. In a 5 gallon plastic bucket, fill with water to half full.
3. To the 5 gallon bucket with water, add the washing soda and Borax. Mix with a broom handle or stick until the powders are dissolved.
4. Add the hot melted Fels Naptha solution to the 5 gallon bucket and stir until combined.
5. Fill the 5 gallon bucket the rest of the way until almost full. Cover.
6. Let the soap sit for 24 hours. In this time, it will congeal into a loose gel. (The gel will have an inconsistent texture, this is just fine. You may stir as needed.)
7. Store the finished soap in used liquid laundry soap containers or in the 5 gallon bucket, whichever you like.