Making your own Laundry Soap

I have blogged before about making your own laundry soap. I started this last year and really loved it. I try to do it as much as I can to save money but mostly because I have very sensitive skin. I started out using ivory bar soap but have used the liquid ivory hand soap the past two times. It is exactly the same as the bar soap except it is liquid and it is much easier to make and use then the bar soap.

If you are curious about making soap simply put in an Internet search for making your own soap and you will see millions of recipes pop up. Here is my recipe for liquid Ivory soap. Keep in mind that this is my recipe and I ended up using this concentration of ingredients because I wanted it more concentrated.

2 cups Liquid (not aloe) Ivory Soap or any liquid soap of your choice
2 cups of baking soda (any brand works)
2 cups of washing soda (you can find this in your grocery detergent aisle. I have found it at Meijer and Kroger)
1 container with lid. I use a 11 quart container


fill the container half full in the sink with very hot to boiling water. The hotter the water the more the soda will dissolve. However I just use very hot tap water. Add the baking soda and stir very well. Add the washing soda (make sure there are no lumps, crumble them up if there are) and stir that until dissolved. Slowly add more hot water until you are 3/4 way filled and then add the two cups of liquid soap. Gently stir and add water (slow trickle) until water is full, you don't want to make suds.

This is done and ready to use because you don't have to wait for it to gel up. You could actually put it into old detergent bottles as well. I put mine in the container with an old towel under it and a measuring cup that sits on top. Because this is so concentrated I use about a cup of it but for really heavily soiled you could add more. I can tell you that I love the smell of my clothes and have no issue with how it cleans. You can add more of each to concentrate it more if you want. This works out to be about .21 cents per cup of detergent and you are doing something good for yourself and family.

I have also used this with just baking soda and it works well but for extra kick I like the washing soda. You can also add borax to the washing machine before adding clothes for extra dirty clothes. I love keeping these ingredients on hand because I use them all the time for cleaning all types of stuff.

This laundry soap will not sudz up so don't panic if you think it is not soapy enough, I used to think that too but just let it work. Your towels will be softer because there is no residue from detergent.

A few washing soda uses see here