Homemade Laundry Detergent

{Above pictures are the little favors that my sister and I made for our MOPS moms. The theme for the month was HELP - helping moms share the load, so we thought this would be cute! :)}

I've had several people show interest in how I make my own laundry detergent. I basically go off the Duggar's recipe, {The Duggars have 19 kids, and I'm sure they are washing laundry 24/7!} however, I have calculated it so that it doesn't make such a HUGE batch. My laundry room is not HUGE, so I'm not thrilled with having a 5-gallon bucket in that room, so I stick to the smaller bottles! ;)

I saved old bottles from store-bought laundry detergent and just re-use those.

Aimee's Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe:

1/3 bar of any type of bar soap {grated}. The Duggar's use Fels-Naptha bar soap, however, I've found that really any type of soap works just fine.

1/3 cup Borax

1/3 cup washing soda {I buy Arm & Hammer brand, and this can be found in the cleaners aisle of your grocery store.}

Mix Borax and washing soda together and then use 1/3 cup of that for the bottle you make. So this amount will actually make 2 bottles, however I have no idea what 1/2 of 1/3 is!;)

{All of the above items cost me less than $6, and it lasts for a LONG time, so plan on making a lot of detergent with these products! ;)}

1. Boil 16 cups of water

2. Add grated bar soap, washing soda and Borax. {make sure you have mixed the borax and the washing soda and used 1/3 cup of that mix.}

3. Dissolve ingredients completely.

4. Use a funnel {if you don't have one, you can just pour it} and pour into used laundry detergent bottle. I do this in my kitchen sink, so if I miss the bottle a bit, it just goes into my sink.

5. Let cool. Again, I just let the bottle sit in my sink until it is cooled off. It may take a couple of hours.

6. Shake up the bottle, and you are good to go!

I have found NO difference in the cleanliness of my clothes, however, the smell isn't as strong as regular laundry detergent. To fix that, my friend said that you can buy essential oils and add a couple of drops, or I just add a fabric softener sheet in the dryer.

I've found that it costs just about $1 to do 1 bottle of laundry detergent, and something about it makes me feel happy when I make something myself! Love it!

I know these directions are a little sketchy, but this is the way I calculated it to fit into one bottle, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask away!!

Good luck, and let me know if you give it a try.

{Yields about 68 ounces of detergent.}