Laundry Detergent

Made Homemade Laundry Detergent this morning. It is the liquid kind.
The idea is credited to Larissa Williams, my cousin.
The original source is http://duggarfamily.com/content/duggar_recipes/30455/homemade_liquid_laundry_soap_front_or_top_load_machine_best_value

Ingredients:
1 Bar of Fels Naptha Soap (can be found in either the laundry aisle or the bar soap aisle of your neighborhood grocery store. It's actually really easy!)
1c. Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (It has to be washing soda, not baking soda or Arm and Hammer Detergent)
1/2c. Borax (also not hard to find. It will be in the laundry aisle of your neighborhood grocery store)
Tap water

When I first heard of this recipe, I didn't really want to try it. I had never heard of the ingredients and was worried about having to find them in the store. After my cousin, Larissa, mentioned doing the recipe on Facebook, I knew finding the ingredients couldn't be that hard (especially since she mentioned you could find them at Wal-Mart!). So don't be discouraged if the ingredients seem foreign to you. 

Step 1: Grate the Fels Naptha Bar.
           - This was the most time consuming part! I felt like it took quite a while. Fels Naptha is harder than even a fresh cheddar cheese. But it smells good and doesn't take much effort, just time. I'm going to be investigating some other ways to melt the Fels Naptha since the only reason for grating it is to make Step 2 go faster and more uniformly.

 Step 2: Add the grated soap bar to a sauce pan. Add 4 cups of hot tap water. Heat on medium heat until melted and dissolved, stirring continuously.

             -  This step also seem to take quite a while. I did not stir continuously, but pretty close. You do need to stay close to the pot at all times, to stir and prevent burning, but more importantly, when it is close to being done, it will easily boil over if you are not stirring it and paying attention. Mine didn't boil over, but it tried. I would say this step takes about 5-10 minutes.

 

-- Water with unmelted, unheated, Fels Naptha grated bar--

 -- Melted Fels Naptha bar --

Step 3: Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water
          - You should fill this up after the Fels Naptha is melted. Because the water in the bucket has to be hot. If it isn't your freshly melted soap will harden in the cold water. I left the Fels Naptha mixture on my stove on low heat to keep it hot while I filled the bucket. I let my son (2.5 years old) help with this.

Step 4: Add the borax, melted Fels Naptha, and the washing soda to the water. Stir until it is all dissolved.

Step 5: Fill the bucket to the top with hot tap water. Stir, cover, and let stand or 8 hours or more. 12 hours is best.

-- Full 5 gallon bucket with Borax, Washing Soda, Fels Naptha, and water--

 -- 5 gallon bucket covered to stand--

** I am using one of my serving trays on top because my bucket didn't have a lid. My cousin Larissa covered hers with a lid from one of her pans. however, none of my pan lids would fit. **

Step 6: After the soap is gelled through out (8-12 hours), stir and fill your laundry containers half way with the soap. Fill the containers to the top with water.

 --Stirred--

 --My containers this time around--

 --How I got the soap into the gallon jugs--

USE: Shake before use. 1/4 cup per load





Notes:
Next time I hope to have laundry soap containers, not just the gallon jugs. Next time I want to measure the soap to make sure that I am putting in the appropriate amount. I think this batch may be a tad on the strong side, but that's ok. Next time, I'll definitely have better labels and make it prettier. I want to add essential oils next time too.