A couple of years ago I was trying to find ways to save money, be more environmentally friendly, and reduce the amount of chemicals in my cleaning. One of the ideas I tried (that stuck!) was to make my own laundry soap. I found some recipes online, did a little bit of research about what works best together, and came up with my own version of homemade powdered laundry soap.
There are three ingredients: Fels-Naptha bar soap, Washing Soda, and Baking Soda. That’s it.
You can add essential oils to give it some fragrance, but it isn’t necessary.
We begin by grating the Fels-Naptha bars just like you’d grate a block of cheese. I’ve done it by hand and with my Kitchen-Aid grater attachment. Both have their advantages:
- The Kitchen-Aid grater makes fast work of the process, and is much easier to do
- The hand grater gives you smaller flakes of soap which looks prettier and arguably may dissolve better in the wash
After my bars are grated I usually like to put them in the blender, or food processor, to pulverize the pieces a little bit more and make them easier to dissolve. I put about half of my soap in the blender, then add a cup or two of baking soda to keep the soap from sticking back together, and blend it until the granules are small and uniform. This step is not completely necessary, but I think it gives my soap a better consistency and helps it to dissolve easier in the washing machine.
After my soap has been blended I put it into a big bowl, dump in the rest of the baking soda and a box of washing soda, and stir until everything is evenly combined.
To store I put my soap in an old ice cream pail, but any container with a lid will do.
To use, I add two rounded tablespoons to my washing machine, just like regular laundry soap. This recipe yields about 80 loads.
Now when I make laundry soap, I make a whole bunch for two reasons. 1. I do a lot of laundry. A LOT. I don’t know how four people make so much laundry, especially with two of them being tiny, but we do. I don’t want to run out. And 2. I like to use whole boxes of baking and washing soda so I don’t have to measure anything out.
3 Ingredient Laundry Soap
Ingredients
- Fels-Naptha Soap – 3 bars
- Baking Soda – one big box (4LB.)
- Washing Soda – one box (3LB. & 7OZ.)
Instructions
- Grate the soap.
- Blend grated soap and baking soda until soap granules are small and uniform.
- In a large bowl, mix blended soap, the rest of your baking soda, and box of washing soda.
- Put in covered containers. Use two rounded tablespoons per load of laundry in place of regular detergent.