Homemade Laundry Soap

I am finally getting this recipe up! Job and I really love it. It is "green", saves us lots of moola, makes our clothes feel and smell good. What's not to love?! :) This post is long, but I promise this is easy peasy to make. And once you make it a batch lasts a good long time. Enjoy!

Homemade Laundry Soap

1 bar soap such as lirio or zote. They are both laundry soaps and we have tried them with great results. (I have also heard ivory soap, Kirk's Castile soap, or Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap will work well. I've heard any vegetable-based bar of soap will work but I have only tried lirio and zote so can't say for sure)
1 cup Borax
1 cup Superwashing soda (found in laundry aisle of store)
5 Gallons water (or less if you want more concentrated soap) *Update, we found it was a bit too thick using 2 1/2 gallons. I would stick to the full 5.

 1. Grate the bar of soap into a bowl. Fill a small pot with water and heat on stove over medium-high heat. Slowly add the grated soap and stir gently over heat until it is completely melted.
Note: Try not to let the water get to a high boil, this will make the soap too foamy. Adjust heat higher or lower during melting as needed.
2. Fill a large container with the 5 gallons of water, making sure there is enough room for the other ingredients.
3. Add borax and superwashing soda and stir gently*
4. Add melted soap and stir gently without making too much foam.
5. Let the mixture cool off completely (we let it sit overnight). Once it is cooled it will be gelatinous and a think layer on top will have formed. Mix it very well once again before dividing into containers for use (we use old laundry detergent bottles, softener bottles, very clean milk jugs etc...). The soap will be a little lumpy, goopy and gel-like as your pour it out of your bottles for use. This is normal. Just give it a little shake before pouring out.


----For a medium load of laundry use 1/2 cup
----For a large load of laundry use 1 cup
----Adjust amount of soap used if less water was used in the recipe. This time we used half the water so halved the amounts of soap we used.

*We really like to add 1 cup of liquid fabric softener such as Suavitel during step 3. We think this makes the soap smell even better, makes our clothes feel comfy cozy, and saves us a step during laundry time :) But if you actually follow directions and add the softener half-way through the laundry cycle instead of dumping it all in at once like we do, feel free to leave it out ;)


1. Grate your bar of soap

 2. Melt your soap

 3. Add super washing soda

 and Borax to water (and softener if you wish)

and stir.

 4. Add melted soap to mixture and slowly stir in.

5. Let sit overnight to cool and "harden"
It will be really goopy and chunky in the morning. Give it a good stir

 And it will become more liquidy

 Funnel the soap into your containers.

 And enjoy your eco-friendly, super inexpensive, lovely smelling, and super effective laundry soap!

I linked this up to the iheartnaptime  linky party and