Tuesday, July 12, 2011

How I Make My Own Laundry Soap and Fabric Softner

I am a sucker for all things handmade, so when a friend (now I have to plug her FB page...she is too cute!) Rita posted on Facebook that she makes her own detergent, I was intrigued! So I asked her for the recipe, and was shocked at how easy and fun it can be to make your own detergent. The hardest part is going to a couple different stores to get your ingredients...they can be a little tricky to find. And with my kids PILES of laundry, the cost per load savings are Grrrrr-eat!
How do such little bodies make so much laundry?!?!?
Here is Rita's recipe:
1 bar Fels Naptha Soap (finely grated in a food processor)
1 cup Washing SODA (Arm and Hammer brand)
1 cup Borax
...
Mix in a sealed container (or even an old commercial brand box works).

I have an HE/front loader and use approx 1-2 T of powder per load.


Easy-peasy, right? And I swear by it. It even removes the f-u-n-k-y odors I find lingering in my kids clothes! Amy and I make this together, everything is ALWAYS more fun with a friend :)  We like to go online and get ideas, to experiment and change up the recipe a little.
Me and Amy...
To go along with my new soap, I hated to add chemical laden commercial softener, so I did some research online and figured out how to make my own :) I will show you the recipe further down, but first I needed to show off the cute containers I made...total THRIFT STORE finds! I then took my cricut, and cut out vinyl letters as labels and made my  little glass containers cute enough to store on my laundry room counter.



And now for the fabric softener/deoderizer recipe I promised: Get out your paper and pencil, you will need to make a list.




1. White distilled vinegar
Thats it! I love my bottle of vinegar for many things, such as counter cleaner, carpet freshner, you name it, I'm the vinegar queen! So when I realized that I could use it to soften and deoderize my laundry, I was stoked! So I just removed the ugly Heinz label, slapped some vinyl on my vinegar bottle, and I then pour it directly into my machines softener dispenser.

 And before you ask, your clothes WILL NOT smell like a salad. The smell magically dissipates after vinegar dries,  leaving them simply smelling fresh and clean :)

If anyone has anything to add, or any fun laundry room tips, I'd love to hear them! I am also ALWAYS on the lookout for recipies for making my own cleaning products....hint,hint :)

16 comments:

  1. Oh my!! Thank you so much!! I love your recipes and now tomorrow I am going out and buying my ingredients. That Fels Naptha Soap was what my grandmother swore by to get out stains! Too funny!!

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  2. Check out Little Diva's blog at www.littledivabowtiquellc.blogspot.com to win some cool hair accessories. One of these days maybe I will get my daughter's purse over to you:)

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  3. Where is the best place to get all of the ingredients?

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  4. Julie, I find the products at Pick N Save. Hint: The Fels Naptha Soap is by the BODY soap, not the laundry soap at P&S. It took me a couple of trips to figure that out :)

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  5. I've been looking for a good laundry soap recipe. I'm going to try this out! We don't have Pick n Saves here so I think that part is going to take a bit of searching, but I'm up for the challenge.

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  6. Some walmarts have Fels Naptha, so you could check there, my walmart has the borax and washing soda, so maybe you'll get lucky!

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  7. I want to try this, but DH is worried that the soap will mess up the food processor. What do you think?

    (Oh, and I know where you can get all three at the same place locally...email me and I'll tell you;) )

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  8. I love it! Thanks so much for sharing and linking up:>

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  9. I've been wanting to make my own laundry detergent for quiet sometime I'm so glad I came across this!! I'm going to try it soon!

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  10. I grated the felsnaptha soap in my Kitchen Aid mixer with the grater attachment, worked wonderful! Then put it into a blender to make it into a powder

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  11. you can also use ivory soap that you cut in half and place in a bowl in the microwave , the soap will puff up , then you can just stir it up (i use my hands) it will become a power, add that to the ingredients that you suggested above and it makes a great laundry soap , and not to metion the ivory soap in the microwave makes the house smell like a fresh shower :)

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    1. What a great idea! I will have to try that next time :)Thanks!

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  12. Walmart has always had all the ingredients!

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  13. As to the fabric softener if you do not want to use all vinegar Mix it with commercial softener. I mix it half and half. The only draw back is it doesn't control the static. I have heard that a foil ball will do that.

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  14. How much Vinegar do you use per load?

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  15. Thanks for asking! I appreciate yous stopping by the blog <3 I have a top loading wash machine, and I just fill it to the "max" line in my machine with pure white vinegar. I hope this helps :)

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