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Sunday, July 31, 2011

Laundry Detergent

Here's the run down.

76 oz Borax $3.97
55 oz Washing Soda $2.98
Fels Naptha bar $0.97
1 batch of powder laundry detergent:
1 C Borax ($.42)
1 C Soda ($.44)
1 bar soap grated ($.97)

I tend to cut my hands up a lot, so this is as small as I felt comfortable grating my soap.  I thought I would use it for stain removal so it wouldn't be wasted.
My husband didn't think I should leave it out of the detergent.  Fortunately, he knows how to use a knife.  Actually, I think he saw it as a challenge.

Then I mixed it well. Hmm, sorry about the messy table.  I usually hide our piles on the bed when we have company.  I'm sure you don't have clutter on yours.





Total cost $1.83 for approximately 48 Tablespoon loads.  Even if I call it 36 loads figuring in for settling it's still around 5 cents a load.  In my quick look on soap.com and amazon.com I found Purex liquid detergent for $6.25/32 loads ($.20/load) and a 35 lbs bucket of powder detergent for around 10 cents a load, and you had to spend close to $100 to get that good of a deal!

I used it today.  I forgot to get a load out of the washer before it got stinky...usually pretty hard to get that smell out, but I couldn't smell the sour laundry after running it again with the homemade detergent and my picky husband commented on how good the laundry room smelled after rewashing and drying the load...we were more than satisfied!  If you decide to make your own laundry detergent, tell me how it works for you.
The DIY Show Off

1 comment:

Jenelle said...

I've been making this kind of homemade laundry soap too and it works well for us! This is really good stuff for those who gets poison ivy pretty easy. Clay is the only one in our family that gets it and since using this kind of soap, he hasn't had a rash for almost 2 years. The Fels Naptha is good for getting the poison ivy oils out of clothes and bedding sheets. P.S. I really like your blog. I haven't been blogging since 2009. :/