Homemade Laundry Soap

  I've had several people ask me for my recipe for making laundry soap, so here it is!!!  I actually got it from the Duggar's first book and you can pull it off of their website too.  By the way, they have an awesome new wesite!!!  Just had to throw that in there ;) 

Ingredients:
1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap (you can actually use ivory too, but the measurments are different)
4 cups of hot water
1/2 cup of borax
1 cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (It has to be the Super Washing Soda, baking soda or just Arm & Hammer will NOT work!)
5 Gallon Bucket
Empty laundry containters or any kind of pour container
 *optional* essiential oil, such as lavender, for scent

                  Grate your bar of soap into a sauce pan with the 4 cups of hot water.

                    Stir continually on low-medium heat until all the little flakes of soap melt. 

Fill your 5 Gallon bucket halfway full of hot water and pour in the borax, the arm & hammer, and the melted soap mixture and stir until all the ingredients are competely melted.  Then fill the remainder of the bucket full with hot water. 

       Stir the mixture once more, just to ensure everything is mixed well. Then you need to cover the bucket (if you have the lid to the bucket, let it have a little bit of breathing room, because it will expand since it's full of hot water) and let it sit overnight to gel.  Then take your dispenser and fill half with your laundry soap and half full of water and shake well each time you use. 

    This recipe makes 10 gallon of laundry detergent.  I made this batch today, and the last batch I made was in January, and I even gave my grandmother some, so you can see how long it lasts!!!  I also read somewhere that it comes to about .01 cent a load.  It's around $5.00 for the 10 gallons!!!!!  You can barely buy a small bottle of laundry detergent for $5.00 without a coupon!!!

   Use about 1/4 cup of detergent for front loaders and about 1/3 cup for top loaders.  I think the Duggars say something else, but I found I wasn't using quite enough soap to get my clothes clean.  My husband and kids must get dirtier than Michelle's ;)  Now, when it says let it gel, it will definately gel!!!  It looks really funny, just remember to shake before each use.  When you shake it up, it will make it very liquidy (is that a word? ;), this is ok, it isn't going to be very thick like store brand detergent.  Also, this soap isn't very sudsy, but this is ok too, it's not supposed to be!  I hope this is clear enough  :)     Happy Washing!!!!