Homemade Laundry Detergent

This past weekend, we made our own laundry detergent.  I found the recipe online, and it claimed that it makes enough for over a year of laundry for only 12 dollars.  That's a deal I couldn't pass up!  The detergent smells good and cleans well. I miss the fruity scent of our old detergent, but that's something I'm willing to live without!

If you want to make a batch of detergent for yourself, here is the recipe:

1 4lb box of Borax
1 4lb box of  Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
1 4lb box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 30oz top of OxyClean or Sun Oxygen cleaner
3 5oz bars of Fels Naptha soap
(All these ingredients are right next to each other in the laundry aisle at Wal-Mart.)

You will also need a large container to put it in.  I think it needs to be at least 3 gallons.  We ended up buying a 15 quart storage box because it was the cheapest thing we could find.

First you will need to grate the soap into your storage container. I just used a regular old cheese grater.
Dump all the other ingredients into the storage container. Pour slowly or else you will inhale baking soda - just a tip. Once all the ingredients are in the container, mix it up with your hands until it is well mixed.

You will need 1 Tablespoon of detergent for a regular sized load and 2 for a large load. The Sun Oxygen soap came with a Tablespoon sized scooper, so I just threw that in the box with the detergent.

And, since we are on the topic of being thrifty, I'll go ahead and post these pictures of how I made a magazine holder out of an empty Cheerios box.