Homemade Laundry Detergent! $ Saver!

Being the stereotypical "poor college student" I have been looking for ways to cut down on routine costs. That's when I happened to stumble across a pin on Pinterest about making your own laundry soap. I got this recipe from 'Why Not Sew's' blog. The recipe seemed pretty simple and straight forward.

First you're going to need a few things:
(This recipe will make 2 gallons of detergent, so halve it if you want less.)

• 1 Bar of soap (pick a scent you like)
• 1 cup Borax (found in the detergent aisle)
• 1 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (I found mine at the local Dillon's store in the laundry aisle.)
• large pot
• Grater
• Funnel (really helps with pouring)
• Spoon
• 2 empty gallon containers (I used 2 milk containers.)

After you have your items gathered:

• Grate your bar of soap into the pot.
• Fill one of your gallon containers with water and pour into the pot.

• Turn on heat and cook until the soap is dissolved. (It really helps if you grate your soap into really tiny flakes)
• Add the Borax and Washing Soda and stir.
• Bring to a boil. The mixture should start to coagulate.
• Turn off the heat and add 1 gallon of cold water. Stir well and let cool.
• Pour your mixture into their containers.

I use about 1/2 cup per load. The mixture doesn't make many suds if any at all but your clothes are most definitely going to be clean!
You should have plenty of borax and washing soda to make many more gallons! After the initial cost of buying the ingredients you won't have to worry about spending $8 on 32 loads when you can spend the same amount for TONS more!

*I made 2 gallons over 6 months ago and have finally just ran out of my original batch!