I made Homemade Detergant

Finally, I am back!  :)

I have mentioned before I LOVE projects.  I completed many projects this summer.  Some of them involved material, food, pictures, paint, shells, hammers, and more.

This project involved soap.  I did this project this summer.  I didnt want to blog about it yet because I wanted to use it first.  I wanted to make sure it was going to work, to make sure I like it.  I wanted to make sure it didnt make us itch after a while.  And now I know.

I am not generally a naturalist who eats vegan, or is GREEN.  However I did nurse my babies and love healthy stuff.  Of course I do like the occasional, well OK (often) big bowl of saucy pasta and cheese.  And even really fattening cheesecake.  Anyway, I also LOVE to save money on occasion.  It urks (is that a real word) me to have to spend over $10 for liquid Gain!  So,when my sister-in-law introduced me to this.  I decided I would give it a try.

My own HOMEMADE detergant!

Now that I know its good, I am sharing it with all of you.  (You know all 5 of you)  :)

So this is what to do:

You will need 1/3 a bar of Fels Naptha, 1/2 cup Washing Soda, & 1/2 cup Borax Powder. You are also going to need a small bucket, about 2 gallon size.  Or in my case I use a storage tub with a top. 

Here is what you do.

Grate the soap.  Use 1/3 of the bar and save the rest for the next 2 times that you make the detergant!  You can find the Fels Naptha in Wal Mart right next to the other soap ingrediants on the detergant isle.
As you can see it sorta looks like grated cheese!  It wont taste the same though so don't reach down and grab a bite like you do when grating cheese! 

 Okay now take the grated cheese,  I mean soap and throw it in a large pot.  Add 6 cups of water and heat it until the soap melts.  Stirring occasionally.  When its melted Add these:

 

You will add 1/2 cup of each.  Stir until it is dissolved.

 Once it dissolves, then remove it from the heat.

Now pour 4 cups of  HOT water into the bucket, or in my case the storage tub. Now add your soap mixture and stir.  Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir.

Next you allow the soap to sit for 24 hours. After the 24 hours the detergent will gel up.  It wont be a solid gel but will be more of a watery gel.   Then I stir it well and then pour it into the old GAIN bottles.  It fills two and then part of another one.  Actually I only saved 2 so the last portion goes into another container that I have.  (An old Tupperware cereal container.).  Use 1/2 cup per load.  Or the top from the old Gain bottle full.

I am so glad I did this.  These pictures are from my 2nd batch. Its easy to do.  It doesnt take long at all to make. It works well.  It smells good. It doesnt itch us.   And it saves soooo much money on detergant.

Thanks Sandra for showing me this.  You guys might want to try it too.