Homemade Laundry Soap
This liquid laundry soap is easy to make, effective and safe for front end and HE washing machines.
Servings: 320 loads
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup Borax
- ½ cup washing soda
- 5 ounces fels naptha soap or castile soap bar 1 soap bar
- 20 drops of orange essential oil
- 15 drops of lemon essential oil
- 10 drops of lime essential oil
- 5 drops of grapefruit essential oil
- 5 gallons of water approximately
Instructions
- Add 1/2 gallon of water to your bucket, stir in washing soda and borax.
- Shred soap bar using a box grater.
- Melt soap shreds in 1 cup of water on the stove over medium heat. Stir often until melted.
- Add the melted soap to the bucket and stir in well.
- Stir in essential oils.
- Fill the rest of the way with water to about 3 inches from the top. Mix well with an immersion blender or large stir stick.
- Secure lid, let it sit overnight, then give it a good shake before using.
Notes
An immersion blender works well to combine the ingredients if you have one.
For easier handling, fill an old detergent container or 1/2 gallon mason jar with the soap and store the bucket out of the way. Use 1/4 cup per load.
The essential oils are optional and can be omitted from the recipe.
Always follow these safety instructions when handling borax.
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The original recipe called for a Fels-Naptha bar to make this laundry soap. Since then, I've switched to a Castile soap bar. The Castile soap bar makes a runnier final product that doesn't gel up like the Fels-Naptha version. However, the cleaning performance seems to be the same.