Copper Wyre

Making Your Own Laundry Soap

By Penny, February 3, 2010 4:26 am

As per reader request, I have posted my tutorial on how to make your own laundry soap. The recipe is one I’ve seen in various places on the web, most notably the Family Homestead and The Simple Dollar. Just in case you’re saying that you don’t have the time, it only took me 13.5 minutes to do it all. It costs roughly $.75 for a two gallon yield, when I had to buy soap. Now that I barter, it’s even cheaper! Score! Just remember that this soap is not a foaming soap, but it works just fine.

Laundry Soap

1/3 bar of laundry soap ( I use a homemade soap that I barter eggs for, but Crystal from The Family Homestead sells a lovely laundry soap here Any soap will do, though.)

½ cup borax

½ cup washing soda (NOT baking soda!)

Grate soap into a saucepan. Add soda and borax, stirring until the soap is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use about ½ cup per load.

Here’s the pictorial:

The directions say use a sauce pan, but I just use my stainless steel mixing bowl. I assure you, the matching ensemble was accidental.

Grate the soap. You could whirl it in a food processor, but I hate cleaning the blasted thing and would rather hand grate for just a small amount like that.