My family thinks I'm crazy......

And they might be right.  Several weeks ago, before I was injured at work, I discovered Pinterest.  Baaaaaaaddddd idea.  LOL.

So, when I was injured at work and essentially bed ridden for the next 10-14 days, I spent a great deal of time surfing the millions of ideas on Pinterest.  300 odd 'pins' later, I was hit by the DIY bug.

How did it start?  Laundry soap.  Yep.  I'm insane.  And obsessive.  I take meds for that....they don't work. :)

I spent H-O-U-R-S researching how to make liquid laundry soap.  I read blogs, read all the comments to see what worked and didn't work, researched the ingredients,  checked the flyers for prices etc. (you can't get Fels-Naptha soap in Canada unless you want to pay ridiculous $$$$ for it.  Kinda defeats the whole, make-your-own-soap-and-save-money thing.)

Crazy.

One day when I felt up to it (and my husband was at work, because otherwise he would have KILLED me for leaving the house)  I made a really quick trip to the closest store to the tiny hamlet I live in.  10 minutes there, 10 minutes to find the ingredients/go through the checkout, 10 minutes home, 6 hours laying in bed because my back was absolute toast.  Bad idea.  Too soon.

Several days after my "I have to get this done NOW" trip to the store, I psyched myself up.  Laundry soap made - took 5 minutes.  How do people not love that???  Quicker than a trip to the store and makes enough soap for 96 loads of laundry.....for essentially pennies.

Does it work?  YES!  I'm all for saving money but I'm not going to compromise and use something that SORTA works.  It has to work as-good-as or better than the regular/storebought stuff.  Period.

The BEST part??  I've been using this soap for the past month.  My clothes smell clean, look clean, most of the stains I couldn't get out with the store bought stuff are now GONE!.  AND - I've easily done more than 32 loads and still have half a gallon left from the FIRST GALLON I made.  We clearly don't use 1/2 a cup of soap per load like the original recipe said.  Maybe 1/4 cup?  I don't know - I just fill to the max line on my washer each time.

The cost difference is pretty amazing.  The store bought stuff I was using was Purex - which is just about the cheapest liquid detergent you can buy.  The jug that we buy (well, used to buy) was $8.99 on sale and advertises on the bottle that it does 32 loads.

Purex - $8.99/bottle, 32 loads - $0.28/load
Homemade - $2.01/3 gallons, 96 loads - $0.02/load.

SAVINGS OF $0.26/load!  Since I actually only use about 1/4 cup per load, it actually works out to about $0.01/load.  I also only do my laundry during the "off peak" electricity times and line dry them outside as often as possible.  Savings all around.

Here is how I did it and what it cost.

Liquid Laundry Detergent

Ingredients and Tools

·      1 bar sunlight soap

·      1 cup borax

·      1 cup washing soda
    1 large stock pot
    1 large plastic bucket (5 gallon bucket - Lowes/Home Depot have them for $5)
    Immersion Blender
    Container for the soap to go in (I used 3 1 gallon Rubbermaid juice containers - on sale at Superstore for $4 each)

1   water

Directions

1.     Grate the bar of sunlight soap.

2.     Bring 4 cups of water to a boil on the stove and slowly add the soap, stirring gently.

3.     Reduce the heat and let it simmer gently until all of the pieces of soap are melted.

4.     Add the borax and washing soda and stir until they are dissolved.

5.     Pour the soap mixture into a large container.  Add 16 cups of hot water to it.

6.     Stir until the mixture is well mixed (immersion blender works well)

7.     Let it sit overnight.  It will ‘gel’ together.

8.     In the morning, add another 16 cups of hot water and mix again.

9.     Divide into 3, 1 gallon containers.

Yield

·      3 gallons

Cost Breakdown

·      Sunlight Bar Soap ($1.99/2 pack, 130g each) = $0.98/1 bar

·      Borax ($4.99/2kg) = $0.49/.204kg/1 cup

·      Washing Soda ($7.29/3kg) = $0.58/8.4oz/cup

·      Total - $2.01, $0.67/gallon

·      $0.02/load (1/2 cup per load)

Notes:

1.  The soap tends to separate when it sits in the gallon jugs.  Just give it a quick shake before pouring it into the soap dispenser.
2.  It IS SAFE for HE washing machines.  HE soaps are low sudsing, and this recipe is as well. If you are worried that it may crud up the hoses in the machine (it won't) just use the vinegar fabric softener I also make (I will post it in a few days)