.::TUTORIAL TUESDAY::. Laundry Soap Tutorial

This is a guest post from my friend Crystal at Instinctively Basic! 

I am going to demonstrate how easy it is to make your own laundry soap at home.  The laundry soap that we create is a liquid soap, however, it could easily work for a powder soap recipe as well.  Head to the end of this post if you want the powder recipe.

Now that we have the ingredients, let's get ready to make laundry soap!

As a breakdown for cost comparison, here are the products we used.  These prices are what I've found in my local area.  Other areas may have different pricing.

20 Mule Team Borax - 76 oz - About $9.00

Arm & Hammer Washing Soda - 55 oz - About $5.00

Fels Naptha Bar - 5.5 oz - About $1.50

Distilled Water (2 gallons) - About $1.10 each 

Keep in mind with these prices that you'll get much more than one batch from the Washing Soda and Borax.  With the Borax, you'll be able to get 9 batches and some left over.  With the Washing Soda, 6 batches and some left over.  So, broken down, we're looking at a cost of:

Borax $1.00

Washing Soda $0.83

Fels Naptha - $1.50

Water - $2.20

Total for 320 ounces of laundry soap - $5.53.

When looking at Tide for comparison, I used the least expensive product available.   It costs out to about $0.08/ounce.  Multiply that by our 320 ounces of homemade laundry soap and the total is $25.60.  That's just ounce for ounce cost.  

When considering a load, I use about 1 ounce per load in my HE washing machine.  The cost is $0.02 per load.  Since this is a double concentrated laundry soap, the amount needed is much less than some of the other recipes available.

I hope that you have enjoyed this video tutorial for How to Make Homemade Laundry Soap. Happy Washing!

**To make this recipe in powder form, simply eliminate the water from the steps.  The Fels Naptha bar will need to be grated very finely, into a powder.  This can be done with a multi-sided box grater.  Put all three of the powders into a jar.  Mix until very well combined.  Use about 1 tablespoon per load.  Store in an air-tight jar and shake prior to use.

~ Crystal from Instinctively Basic