Make your own laundry soap?

Has anyone got a recipe they like? The only one I've found so far is this:

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap - Front or top load machine

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 soap bar - Sunlight or Linda
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Re: Make your own laundry soap?

not seen sunlight soap or the other one over here but its a good thing to no thank you

Re: Make your own laundry soap?

I think Walmart carries the Sunlight bar soap.

Re: Make your own laundry soap?

Borax is not something you want to put in the environment (yes, I know it occurs naturally but so does asbestos) can I suggest a much better recipe:

Laundry Gel

This is an environmentally friendly laundry liquid (especially for those who use their grey water on the garden). It sets to a gel like consistency but a good shake sends it back to a liquid for measuring into the washing machine.

Ingredients

100gram tablet of pure soap (Home Brand seems fine)
250mL (1 metric cup) white vinegar
250mL (1 metric cup) washing soda
15mL Eucalyptus oil (about three teaspoons)
10 litres of water

Instructions

1) Grate the soap (metal cheese grater does it well) and put in saucepan with 2 litres of water and heat until boiling
2) Add washing soda and stir until dissolved
3) Add white vinegar and eucalyptus oil
4) Heat half the remaining water and stir into mixture then add the remaining cold water. Stir well.
5) Put into containers and allow to cool before capping

At step 5 you can add a few drops of perfume such as an essential oil but personally I never bother.

Use

I find that 1 to 1.5 cups are fine for a normal wash but experiment to see what suits you and your machine, I dilute it in a bucket before adding to the washing machine (a top loader) but I do that anyway with all laundry liquids and powders so it may not be necessary.

It came from here

(Borax was added to the Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC) candidate list on 16 December 2010.)

Re: Make your own laundry soap?

Why would anyone want to go to the trouble of making up their own soap?

Re: Make your own laundry soap?

Thanks Bruce - sounds good. I had no idea about Borax being a concern.

Willow - it's a fraction of the cost and contains less (or none) of the pollutants in commercial detergent.

Re: Make your own laundry soap?

Fortunately I can afford to buy a good quality washing capsules for my laundrey needs.

Re: Make your own laundry soap?

And fortunately for those who don't like to throw away money, there are good alternatives.

Re: Make your own laundry soap?

They might want to use grey water on their garden and not ruin the soil or plants by adding salts, poisons and/or phosphates.

Not everybody lives in a country where it rains all the time.

Re: Make your own laundry soap?

I'm just curious Bruce, but what is grey water?, is it collected rain water or water left over from the bath, dishes, washing machine, etc., I come from a Country where it never stops raining.