The Recipe for Laundry Soap

This is from the website: http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/, with notes from my friend, Jenny. Happy laundering! :-)

Powdered Laundry Detergent - Recipe #4
2 Soap (finely grated)
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Borax
Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.
Use 2 tablespoons per full load.

Additional tips from Jenny:

- I grate my soap using a cheese grater, then put it in a food processor to get it finer.

-I found a little tablespoon measuring tin cup (looks like a shot glass) -- which most hold about 4 tablespoons, so you use just 1/2 of it for each load (2 tablespoons), some more for very soiled loads. Just put the small glass in your container to act as the scoop!

-There will be nooooo suds! Bubbles don't do the work, it's the ingredients in the powder!

-Put the powder in the washer before you put your laundry in it, so that the soap dissolves, you can put some warm/hot water in it to make it work faster, then use cold in the rest of the washer to save more money!

-Call your local markets before shopping for the ingredients---so that you're not wasting money going from Walmart/Wegmans/Giant like I did....

-use vinegar (2 tablespoons/load) as the fabric softener (I know it sounds wierd), but it actually does a few things for you. It neutralizes any of those funky odors from towels and washclothes (ya know the smell--it's aweful). AND--it is cheaper than regular fabric softener! AND--it will keep the bar soap from clogging your pipes from soap scum build up. I've used it and it's great. I was hesitant the first few times because once the washer does the first spin cylce, it releases the vinegar (as it does softener) and it smells a little 'vinegary'. BUT--once the washer fills up with water and does it's rinse thing, the clothes come out fine! I usually hang my laundry out (again to save money AND because they smell so darn good!)

-I also cut my fabric softener sheets in half--and use them over and over again until there is nothing left to them! I use the sheets mostly for the smell--since I'm already using the vinegar....

-Use oxyclean if you feel that your whites aren't just quite white enough----a lot of people use it with regular detergent.

-If you have an HE or front loading machine, there are recipes on the tipnut--read through the comments and someone has one posted.

You will need:

-Borax
-Arm and Hammer WASHING soda (not baking soda--these are entirely two differnt things).
-And BAR soap (Ivory, Zote, Fels Naptha, Irish Sping, Zest)--no soap with oils!! (like Oil of Olay and Dove). Just pick one that you like the smell of--a lot of people use Fels Naptha (old time washboard soap) but I havn't found it anywhere around here. So, I use Irish Spring (yum!!)

The cost? About 6.00 for the above.....
How long will it last? about 1 month for 1 batch, for a family of 5, average of 9 loads of laundry/week, it ends up being about 40-50 loads/batch for the measly cost of 3.00/batch.

So--3.00 vs. 12 or 15 for yummy smelling Tide....

which will you choose?

Advantages: you can make it when you want to, no money spent on gas, no big plastic containers to recycle, you know what is in it--and just knowing you made it yourself.