I am cooking up my first batch as I type! I can't believe how CHEAP it is! Now that we have the front load washers, I can't get detergent for free (or at least I haven't found it since I got them), so the HE detergent is killing me at full price of $2.99 a bottle .

I bought 4 lb. borax, 4 lb's of washing soda and 2 bars of Fels Naptha soap and for everything it was about $8 and I will get GALLONS of detergent out of it!

Here's the recipe I am using, if you've tried it and have a recipe, please share!




3 Pints Water
1/3 Bar Fels Naptha Soap, Grated
1/2 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Borax
2 Gallon Bucket
1 Quart Hot Water
Hot Water

Mix Fels Naptha soap in a saucepan with 3 pints of water, and heat on low until dissolved. Stir in Washing Soda and Borax. Stir until thickened, and remove from heat. Add 1 Quart Hot Water to 2 Gallon Bucket. Add soap mixture, and mix well. Fill bucket with hot water, and mix well. Set aside for 24 hours, or until mixture thickens. Use 1/2 cup of mixture per load.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

Let us know how this works. I spent $22 on two big bottles of liquid detergent today. Also, where did you get all of the ingredients? I'm interested in trying this myself, as I also have a front-loader washer.
Was your receipe specifically for a front loader? Also, what does this smell like?

No the recipe isn't for a front loader, it's for any but it doesn't suds up like commercial detergents so it is fine for the front loaders. It smells CLEAN! DH asked what the smell was and he was smelling the Fels Naptha Soap. I found everything at Shoprite, Walmart only had the Borax. And the Arm & Hammer is the "Washing Soda" in a big box, NOT the baking soda.

I;ve read that you can use almost any bar soap such as Ivory and someone even used Lever 2000 because it was what they had around.

I made my first batch and it didn't even make a dent in my supplies! Lets just hope my laundry smells as clean! I've heard it will!

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

I had looked into homemade soap recipes just a few weeks ago, in fact. I ,too, have a front loader. The suds are the problem with them....they blow out the pump.

I may have to give this a try. thanks.

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I make my own laundry detergent. I've done it on and off for years. When things get tight, it's the first change I make LOL

Selena

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please let us know if it cleans well...dh is a carpenter, and we are both gardeners and our clothes can get a bit scrufty...
BTW....if you are working outdoors, and suspect you may have come in contact with poison ivy, wash up with the fels naptha...the ivy juice or whatever it is will come off completely, and prevent an outbreak. I keep a bar in the house and in the camper

i used to make it and then started having problems finding the fels naptha . no one around here carrys it that I can find now.

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whats washing soda??
edited to add, I reread and saw what I missed (arm and hammer)...I have been working 15 hour days, (today was the last) and am not seeing things clearly.

I bought the bucket of powder detergent from Sams (the cheap one) it cleaned terrible and didnt dissolve completely in cold water (99.9% of my loads are cold, but our water has lots of minerals due to well)
Just thought I would mention that

My grandmother always used Fels Naptha for stain removal... You just rub the bar into the stain and then wash. Works like Shout. I'd love to try your recipe but we don't have Shoprite and like Jo, haven't been able to find Fels Naptha for years.

Have you ever tried Sears' Ultra Plus Detergents? It often goes on sale for about $10-15 a box for 180 loads (lasts almost 9 months in our house). The 275 load buckets are $25 and the 120 load boxes are $9 every day. It really does a great job of getting clothing clean, in my experience.

I was looking into this and googled the Fels-Naptha soap. They sell all three major ingredients on Amazon.com. You can look just to see what you are looking for. The Fels-naptha is $1.50 a bar and may qualify for free shipping if you spend $25

Aha, I see that Fels Naptha is sold on Amazon by Ace Hardware. Never thought to check their brick and mortar. Thanks for the heads up, csschultz!

Sounds like too much of a project to make, but creative nonetheless.

Hey flipper,

Please do let us know how it works. I'd be super interested in trying that myself. I'm down to the end of my laundry soap stockpile and I don't want to restock because I haven't found any good coupons lately. I can't bring myself to spend more than $3.00 per bottle and that even hurts. This sounds like a good way for me to go....

Thanks!

Kim

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Kim

It was really easy and I don't have a creative or crafty bone in my body! You just melt everything together really then add water. I did my first load today so after it dries, we'll see! That batch filled 2 old bottles and I still had some leftover.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

This sounds great if we can find the ingredients. We go through so much laundry detergent. Heck, if you give it a good review, I might even let the kids help make it-soulds like a good afternoon project.

I used to make it years ago (the same recipe that was posted - it's from _The Tightwad Gazette_) It was easy to make and worked fairly well except that we have very hard water so it didn't really get out some of the *kid* stains but that was a water issue, not a detergent issue. Now that I'm reading about it, I think I may try making it again. I've been using Tide cause it cleans so well even in hard water but the price, even with coupons, is high.

I made some (same recipe) a couple of months ago. I found all the ingredients at a local grocery chain. The washing soda and borax are usually in the laundry aisle on the top shelf. The Fels Naphta soap is sometimes in the laundry aisle...and sometimes somewhere else.

It turns out kind of clumpy gel like. I squish it a little when I use it in the front loader because sometimes a few clumps don't go through. It IS really cheap and cleans well. It's just DH and I now though...and we don't get too dirty. The only way I can discribe the smell is clean. You can add fragrance if you want too.

So to whom should I send my scrufty clothes for the performance test
JK....I am still waiting for a report on decently dirty laundry

I've found the Fels Naptha in with our regular bar soaps, which is funny because it says Laundry right on the front of the package!

I used to make this recipe a lot. What I recall is that our sheets and towels were very, very soft when I used it. Some website had a fabulous deal on Tide tablets and I bought about three or four years worth and didn't need to make it anymore. I ran out a year or so ago and had forgotten all about this! I'll have to try it again.

I'm so tempted to try this. I use fels naptha for stain removal now and it works great. I'm afraid of ruining my front loader, though. It's like my baby -- cost a fortune and I can't afford to mess it up. Has anyone use this recipe long term and had success?

Coincidentally, I was on the dollar stretcher site the other day just before I came here and read this thread. This is the article I found -- it's something to think about: Debt

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I've been making my own for about 6 months now. I don't make a liquid, though, I use a dry mix of soap, borax and arm & hammer washing soda. It takes about a tablespoon a load and doesn't get sudsy at all so I've read that it's okay for front loaders.

At first I used the Fells Naptha, but wasn't crazy about the smell. Ivory soap is okay to use too, and I far prefer the scent. I do use Fells Naptha for stains, plus a bar of lye soap that works great on the stains the Fells Naptha can't get. Our clothes are certainly as clean as they were when we were using Tide, and my entire family are stain magnets.

Maureen

Great article. Going to check out that website too! Thanks for sharing.

Maureen,

Where are you finding lye soap? Funny how just this week we were talking about how good lye soap works with stains with our 90 yr old Great Aunt while in VA Beach for vacation and she said she cant find it to use it where she lives in Queens and I would love to find some for her because she said she would use it to do her laundry again.


I think once I get back home and settled in I may try this recipe for laundry soap, I am using Aldi's equivalent to Purex @ $1.99 per bottle, but if this is less and makes a better impact on the environment I am willing to try anything.

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I really, really want to do this. But does it do anything to your warantee? We just got a high efficiency top loading washer, and paid through the nose for an extended warranty because I've heard a lot of bad things about them.

Anyone know how this might affect that warranty???? I really don't want to ruin a $1,000 washing machine (I CAN'T even believe I paid that much for it).

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Linda

Well Flipper, how did your laundry turn out? Was it clean? Did it smell nice? We're all wondering how it turned out, and what you thought!

I buy mine at a local living history museum, in the gift shop. So far I've only used it directly on stains, but I suppose there's no reason not to grate it into the washer and use it as the detergent.

If you do a google search for lye soap, there are quite a few online retailers still selling it. I bet your great aunt would love it if you found her some!

Maureen

I have to say if I didn't know I was using home made detergent, I would have no idea I switched. The clothes are clean (even the kids play clothes and you know how dirty they get in the summer), they are soft, if not softer than usual and I haven't even started using my 2 gallons yet. I have done about 3 or 4 loads and I am still using the extra that didn't fit into the bottles. This is great! I won't have to buy detergent for a long time! I even tried the FN soap as a pretreater today on DH work shirts, we'll see how that works even though I usually get Shout almost free after coupons.

And the the above poster who asked about the warranty, I really have no idea, but how would they be able to tell what detergent you used unless you told them? And this isn' t really any different than what you would buy. All of these ingredients are made to go in a washing machine, they are all laundry "boosters", nothing strange.


I think it is at least worth a try, it could save a TON of money. ANd if you don't like it you can still use the cleaners around the house for something else.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

Has anyone here heard of Laundry Pur? My girlfriend got one early last winter and absolutely loves it and we will be getting one here shortly. With the Laundry Pur, you use no detergent whatsoever. It is a unit that attached to your water intake supply on the washer and uses a UV light. She said that she occasionally uses bleach but not even as often as she did prior to the Laundry Pur. Her water in her particular communty was what she described as "skunky." She said her clothes, towels, etc. always had a bad smell but since installing the L.P. she can't wait to pull stuff out of the dryer and bury her nose into it. The discharge water from the washer after using the L.P. is suppose to be cleaner than the water coming in from your well or municipal system.

For anyone not familiar with UV lighting used with water, my neighbor and also my BIL both have very elaborate koi ponds in their backyards and fought for years with algae and other issues for the cloudy water. They went through all kinds of filters and were never really satisfied and it was a constant battle. They both eventually installed a UV light type filtering system and now the ponds are crystal clear and they are thrilled. I think the ponds look fabulous and the fish look like a picture of health. Both have been using the UV light filter for a couple of years now.

Here is a couple sites with some recipes,

10 Homemade Laundry Soap Detergent Recipes TipNut.com

Making Homemade Laundry Soap

Homemade Laundry Detergent - Instructables - DIY, How To,

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I don't know if this helps you or not, but someone used regular detergent in my high-efficencey top load machine and broke the pump. It was not covered under warranty and I had to shell out around $150 to have the pump replaced. I don't own that machine anymore -- thank goodness because I hated it -- we sold it with our previous house. Now I'm really carefull about using only the HE detergent in my front loader.

You can also find lye soap at local festivals/craft shows. A lot of the home made soap is made from lye....just be sure to ask the vendor. DS has been making lye based soap for several years. Stop by this afternoon and I'll give a bar to you!

I think I want to give this a try, but does anyone know if these homemade recipes will fade black clothes? TIA

.

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littlejo, if you go to the dial website, you can locate a retailer within a specific distance. I had checked WalMart and didn't think I'd be able to find it because they didn't carry it. I looked at the website and found 18 retailers within 10 miles of me. Kroger carries it.


I am going to get the supplies today. For those of you who have made it, what did you use to grate the soap? Just curious....

TIA!

Kim

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Kim

I haven't used it in homemade laundry soap, but,I did use it today in a load of whites, and I just used the cheese grater to scrape it on and shred it. Worked like a charm.

Littlejo, you may also be able to find this at a Mom & Pop type hardware store, or ask at your local grocery. They may just have it in an odd area.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

I was just thinking about this thread the other day! I have NOT purchased any laundry detergent or any more supplies to make my own since I started this thread 7 months ago! I still have at least enough supplies to make another batch of detergent ( then I'll need more Fels Naptha soap, but I have a TON of the other stuff)and our clothes look just as good as everyone elses!

I do a lot of laundry every week too, with 2 small kids and lots of stains, so this stuff really works and there are no perfumes or anything in it, only what I put in.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

Does it suds up a lot? You said you have a front loader, right, Flipper??

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Yes, we have a front loader and this detergent has no suds at all, so it's perfect.

That was the reason I started making it, I couldn't get the detergent for the front loaders for free or really cheap ( with coupons of course) like I could for my old top load washer.


And I grated my soap with a little hand held grater I got from the dollar store.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

Wow! I'm glad you brought this post back out. This sounds so great. We're finally debt free (other than mortgage's), and I was looking for ways to stretch everything. Plus, I'm getting resentful of the detergent companies.. how many times in the last couple of years have they made the bottle half the size and increased the price twice as much. I have a hard time believing that concentrated liquid works as well as the old stuff. I'm going to try this..

I make my own detergent, but take the easy way out. I grate fels naptha straight into the wash, and just pour in a tiny bit of the washing soda and borax. I've been doing this for a year or two, and works just fine. I never seem to get around to mixing up a big batch.

I also make my own lavender dryer bags, sewing some lavender into little muslin pouches. It smells wonderful, and there are no chemicals on our clothes.

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Hey - I just made my first batch. I guess we'll see how it turns out.

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Kim

Could you share more? How much do you put in each pouch and how many times do you reuse them? Do you grow your own lavender?

I made the laundry soap using the recipe from the Duggar family (18 kids and counting) makes enough for 640 loads in front loading machine. I used 1/4 cup per load and nothing else. Line dry and fluff in the dryer for five minutes and everything came out clean, smelling great, less wrinkles and best of all so soft!

Hey - wondering if I did something wrong???? My laundry soap is still sitting (for the 24 hours), but it is really congealing! It's looking almost like jello - maybe more like pudding. Is it supposed to be like that???

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Kim

Yep. It gels up quite a bit. I usually squeeze it a little when I put it in the dispenser (front loader).

I just buy the Laundry Detergent when it is buy one get one free and use with a coupon and it's really cheap this way. I will buy even when I don't need it because it won't go to waste with 5 of us.

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I found the Fels Naptha today at a kroger about 30 miles away. Anyway, I made one of the powdered detergent recipes and used it. It seems to work really well..

One of the reasons I make my own deterg. is because with a front loader the cost is high for deterg., hardly ever see the HE stuff on sale here. As well, I can use either fels or homemade soap or even Ivory when it's super cheap, and my kids who are sensitive to detergs do better with the homemade stuff. And it really is much cheaper for us, we live in a land of no doubles. As well, I like knowing *exactly* what is in the stuff, am never sure with store bought stuff.
Besides all that jazz, I hate the fragrances in commercial detergs and like the scents of the homemade stuff I've made over the years.
MZ

I know this is an old post but I firstly want to thank all of you for pushing me to make my own detergent. I love it and it was so easy! I do want to know if anyone has tried using less water to make it more concentrated and easier to store? aloso I wandered if then it would be more "jelly" rather than that "egg" concistancy?
TIA
Debra

For those of you who say you never see the 'HE' detergent on sale -- Target & CVS always have Tide HE on sale the same as the regular Tide.

I haven't done CVS ECB lin a long time, but they used to have a montly P&G promotion where you spend a certain amount on specific P&G products and get an ECB. Tide was often included, so I got a lot that way for very inexpensive.

Sarah.........

Don't know about the consistency cuz I make the powdered kind (I bar Fels: 1 c. borax: 1 C. washing soda).
I had used Charlie's Soap for quite awhile after I got my front loader a few years ago, and found it better than anything else I could buy in stores. But it was still pricey, and I still didn't like the smell. Since going back to homemade stuff my clothes and machine are in better shape.