That was more of a rhetorical question. I don’t know how it happens, but I could wash laundry every…single…ding…dang…day and never see my laundry room floor. Where does it all come from anyway? Oh yes….a working husband and three children who seem to go through five wardrobe changes a day. Okay, I remember now. Please tell me I am not alone in this. And no, I won’t be gracing the whole world with pictures of said unseen floor. I am sure your imaginations can visualize the awesomeness.
With all of this laundry to do comes lots and lots of laundry soap. And my friends laundry soap ain’t cheap. Now, I haven’t bought laundry soap in about 4 years. I am really pulling from the archives for this one, but I believe I paid around $12 a bottle for our laundry soap and I bought one every month. On average $144 a year. Not a bank breaker, but I can think of a lot more fun things to spend $12 on every month. At the time, we were in a pinch pennies time of life. So when my sister in-law told me about a really cheap way to make laundry soap from the Duggar Family, I was in! There are only 3 ingredients. Super Washing Soda, Borax and a Fels Naptha Bar. On average to buy all of these new you will spend $12. You will only use a fraction of the washing soda and borax boxes. I have had my boxes for a couple of years, so they will last you for several “batches.” For our family of five I make a batch about twice a year. Each batch costs around $4.38. That is less than $10 a year, my friends. $130-ish savings. BOOM BABY! This accountant’s little heart gets super excited when I can take a normal expense and delete them from the books. The only thing some may have against this DIY laundry soap is that it doesn’t have a big flowery smell like commercial brands. The clothes are clean and don’t smell dirty, but they don’t give off that wonderful aroma. That doesn’t bother this girl, but I know some would prefer yummy smelling laundry and that is okay too. I have recently started adding essential oils to our laundry soap and I am loving it. I use a combination of lavender and lemon oils, but the combinations are endless. To start you will need a five gallon bucket with a lid. You can find these at Lowes and Home Depot for sure and most likely Walmart as well. The ingredients can all be found on the detergent aisle of most grocery stores or Walmart.
DIY Laundry Soap Ingredients:
4 cups hot tap water
1 Fels Naptha Soap Bar
1 cup Super Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
Grate soap bar (if you have a food processor with a grating blade this takes all of 3 seconds!) and add to a medium sauce pan with the hot water. Stir continually over medium/low heat until soap dissolves completely. Fill your 5 gallon bucket half full with hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and borax. Stir well until powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to the top with more hot water. Stir and put lid on tight. Let sit overnight to thicken. After it has sat overnight it should be almost like a huge chunk of jello floating in a good bit of liquid. At this point you want to stir and kinda break it up, a long handled spoon will do the trick. If you would like you can add 25-35 drops (depends on the quality of oils you are using, start small and add if you need to) of essential oils at this time. It easier to use a container (I use an old laundry soap bottle) for daily use. Fill your container half full of the soap from the bucket and then fill it the rest of the way with warm water. I use a canning funnel to make the filling easier.
Even the littles can help. It is a super easy and quick way to save a buck! Now I must get back to the grind stone that is the laundry pile. The cleaning fairies, unfortunately, were a no show yet again today!