[blhmabbott]

I'm so proud of myself! I made my first batch of laundry soap yesterday! I ran out of the store bought stuff and had piles and piles of laundry waiting to be done, so I grated up a bar of soap and added it to boiling water to dissolve it. Let it cool then poured it into the bottle and then decided to REALLY test it to see how well it worked, so I washed all the whites which were REALLY dirty. I didn't add bleach, baking soda or vinegar...just the soap. WOW are they white now! I won't ever be buying the store stuff again when I can get bar soap for 25 cents apiece at the $ store!
My DH said "Your so resourefull and smart!", but I had to give ya'll the credit for putting the idea in my head because I read it on a thread somewhere here recently. Thanks for the idea guys...you just saved me some more money!
Heather

 

[Guest]

my dad used to make soap years ago- we had a bakery, and he used the old lard from frying.He made laundry soap from lye and lard as I recall- and it worked fine.You've got to remember every that every box of laundry soap you buy in the store has to pay for all those TV commercials-and as far as I know, a commercial never cleaned one load of laundry.I don't know- but it would be interesting to know what the actual cost of ingredients are that goes into a box of laundry soap- my guess is pennies- the rest is packaging, mark-up, advertising etc[ and what your cost is to make your own soap]

 

[blhmabbott]

Well, I hope that me making my own laundry soap won't put anyone out of work :haha: , but since the bar I used was given to me as a free sample the batch I made was virutally free! I'll be using Ivory from now on though, so I hope that company doesn't go out of business!

My Mom used to make our laundry soap out of wood ashes and water (converted that into lye) and then did whatever it was she did to it to make soap. I'm afraid I'm not that ambitious lol. But I CAN do that grated bar soap .
Heather

 

[HilltopDaisy]

Yep, you can't get much more frugal!! Let's see, a medium sized bottle of liquid laundry soap is about $4 on sale. I used 1/2 bar of soap, 1/2 cup borax, and 1/2 cup washing soda. That makes about 2 gallons of soap, costing maybe .75 cents. I leave it unscented, and add a couple drops of lavendar oil for my clothes, or tee tree oil for dog towels/bedding. I wonder how much a family would save in a year doing it this way.

 

[Carol O]

I've heard of making laundry soap from Fels Naptha soap, washing soda, and borax....can you just use any old bar soap??

Carol

 

[blhmabbott]

Carol,
I had a bar of the Fels Naptha soap but didn't have any of the other stuff to go with it...I've just never gotten around to getting any of the other ingredients but want to try that way too. I used a plain old bar of Pure & Natural because I got it free and we don't use anything but Ivory to bathe with, and the P&N is what I had to work with. So I thought I'd give it a go and I'm glad I did! I read that somewhere on this forum...could have been a frugal thread on CF...I can't remember exactly where it was posted.
Heather

 

[barbarake]

Oh, this sounds interesting. I just noticed that I'm getting low on laundry soap - but I have lots of Ivory bar soap.

How much boiling water did you use?? Just one bar of soap?? How much did you put in a load of laundry?? Details, details - I need details!!

 

[Guest]

You laundry soap folks must be blessed with soft water. In my neck of the woods we need to use laundry detergent or the clothes just don’t come clean. Water is too hard for soap. You can get it to work but the amount of soap you need to use is ridiculous. The soap then wont wrinse clean and leaves the clothes rather dingy. Does a real good job plugging up the dry well to boot.

 

[blhmabbott]

barbarake: Well, the whole procedure is really precise :haha: I filled my laundry detergent bottle up with water (1 gallon bottle), dumped it into the pot and brought it to a boil, stirred in 1 bar of grated soap (I used an old fashioned hand grater and used the smallest holes to make make the flakes smaller) until it was dissolved (took a whole 30 seconds) then let it cool and poured it back into the container. Walaaa! Liquid laundry soap!

I had to keep the kids from eating the grated soap cause it looks like coconut .

I don't know if I have hard water or soft water but it sure works good!
Heather