Homemade Laundry Detergent...Love it!!

In November of 2011, my friend Lauri P. posted on fb about a homemade laundry detergent she was making and it piqued my interest so I asked her to share her experience and to share the recipe.  After finding all the ingredients at Wegman's per her suggestion, I made my first batch and fell in love.  I was certainly skeptical because I thought, "how could such a small amount of non-sudsing detergent get an entire load clean?"  I used the 2 tbsps suggested and was surprised to find that indeed, this detergent had some cleaning power.  I even used the Fels-Naptha soap bar to treat the underarm area of my husband's shirts.  Well about 2 months ago, I ran out and because I wasn't close to the Wegman's I decided to buy the liquid detergent that I used previously and I can honestly say that my clothes were not as fresh and clean as they are/were with the homemade stuff.  Yesterday, I made my way out to Wegman's and bought all the ingredients and my daughter helped me whip up my second batch.  I ran downstairs to the laundry room to use it right away on a comforter and sheet set that I removed from the dryer yesterday and it just didn't scream freshly cleaned to me at all!!  Not only does this stuff work but it wills save you a ton of money because it lasts so long.  I have a family of 6 that includes an 11 month old and a 3 year old boy and so we have at least 6 loads a week and sometimes more.   The first batch lasted just under six months!  I will never go back and now I know that I need to plan ahead when I start running low so I won't have to go back to the overly priced already made stuff.  Try it, you'll like!

Here are all the ingredients. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Powder, Borax Laundry Booster, A & H Baking Soda, OxiClean and two bars of Fels-Naptha Soap.  I added in about a cup of the Purex Crystals, it's a lavender scented fragrance booster in the form of little beads. I also toss some of the Purex Crystals in the water when I start the wash.  Total costs for all ingredients...$22.43 and if you choose not to use the Purex scented beads, which the original recipe doesn't call for it would cost you $18.44

I put a kitchen sized garbage bag in a bucket and pour the ingredients in in 3 phases.  Add 1/3 of each ingredients mix with gloved hands, and repeat until all ingredients have been used.  I find doing it in 3 parts makes it easier to incorporate all the ingredients evenly. 

I then reuse the OxiClean container and fill it up with the detergent and store the rest in the bag  and inside the bucket until needed.

I also use the scoop that comes with the OxiClean and fill it up to the "2" line for each load.  In this pic, you can see the Fels-Naptha soap that I grated in the in my Cuisinart. Last time I used a box grater because I forgot about my food processor grating attachment, it took less than a minute to grate.  The shreds were kind of long so I then put them back in the processor with the blade and pulse a few time to get smaller bits.  You can also see the purple Purex crystals.  Love this stuff!

These are two of the Scent Boosters that I use.  I love yummy smelling laundry.  And you can see the blue scoop which shows how much of the detergent you use for a large load.  And finally to give credit where credit is due, here is the link to the original blog I got the detergent recipe from http://beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/2010/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html