One Year's Supply of Homemade Laundry Detergent

Today, I finally got around to doing something I have been wanting to do for well over a year. I made my own laundry detergent that should last us a whole year. I found this video on YouTube that gave me the ingredients and how-to. I followed pretty much what they have but with a couple changes. I also bought everything from Walmart. 

The ingredients:

1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax

1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 (4 lb) Box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
5 (5.5 oz) Bars of Fels Naptha Soap

Optional Ingredients: 
1 (3 lb) Container of OxyClean 
1 (19.5 oz) Downy Unstoppables 

1 (13.5 oz) Downy Unstoppables

Other supplies you'll need:

2 (1 gallon) glass jars plus another smaller container for extra soap that didn't fit in the glass jars (I used a storage container from my kitchen)

1 stainless steel coffee scoop (measures 2 Tbsp.)

2 (13 gallon) trash bags

kitchen blender 

large bowl

large spoon

The first step was breaking up the bars of Fels Naptha. I used my flexible cutting board (pours easily into blender) and chopped it into large chunks. Then I blended one bar at a time in my blender until it looked like bread crumbs. (I got the idea of using a blender from another video.) The first three bars worked perfectly this way. But the last two bars were not as dry, I guess, and just gummed up in my blender. So I transferred them into a microwaveable bowl and heated them for 1 minute. (A suggestion made in the above video.) I then used the end of my large spoon to break it up more. When it was cool enough I poured it into the large bowl that I had put the other bars of soap that had been crumbled. I further broke up the chunks of soap with my hands and it crumbled quite well with the added grain of the other bars of soap. 

I originally planned to mix everything in a large bucket I picked up from Dollar Tree but it was too small so I went to plan B which was the two trash bags. I saw a lady do this in her video making laundry detergent but I can't find that video now. I got help from my husband to get everything into the bags and then tied each bag and he tumbled it around in his arms for a minute. 

The OxyClean came with a scoop that I used to scoop all of the soap out of the bags and into the glass jars. To get the rest of the soap that wouldn't fit into the glass jars, I cut a corner of the trash bag and poured the little bit into the storage container. 

Here are some pictures of the items I used and the final product.

 Borax $3.97    Washing Soda $$3.97    Baking Soda $2.24

 OxyClean $7.52

Downy Unstoppables $8.94 for large bottle  $6.97 for small bottle

(I used the Fresh scent of Unstoppables)

Fels Naptha $0.97 each

Glass jars $5.47 each

Coffee Scoop $1.67

4 Spoon set $0.88 (used the largest spoon)

My total for everything:

$55.46

Divide that by 12 months and it's $4.62 of laundry detergent per month. You only need to use 2 tbsp. of detergent per large load. I will not have to purchase the jars, coffee scoop, or spoons again which will bring my total down to $41.06 OR $3.42 per month. Compared to what I was spending on Sun liquid laundry detergent of $5.97 per container. It may not seem like enough of a difference to go through the hassle but it's spending either $41.06 per year or $71.64 per year. Umm....yeah I would like to keep my $30 and spend it somewhere else. 

For those wondering...this is both infant/baby safe and safe for sensitive skin. (My two concerns for our daughter and myself.)

I will start using this at the beginning of 2015 so I can see exactly how long it takes to use it. 

My next plan is to make my own fabric softener, dish detergent and dishwasher detergent.