DIY Laundry Detergent

One morning this week, before going to spend the day with one sweet girl (Parker), I whipped up a batch of laundry detergent.  Several months ago I mentioned to my dad that I had been thinking of making some homemade laundry detergent...a few months after that when Jason and I went to visit my parents (in the beautiful North Carolina mountains) they had a box waiting with my name on it. Here are the contents of that box:

Ready to make some soap!



It was a pretty easy process.  I started by grating half a bar of Naphtha and let it dissolve into some water on the stovetop.  Then all you do is measure the correct amounts of Arm & Hammer and Borax, mix them into the Naphtha water, boil, mix more water and let it sit for 24 hours.  Easy peasy! The mixture comes out looking like this:

I should have allowed the Naphtha to dissolve better, you can see little specks of it on top.  I don't think that will matter...and if it does I won't know because it will be doing its job in the washing machine! 

Before every use you just have to stir and measure out half a cup.  I reused some old laundry detergent containers so I give it a shake and do a capfull!  I have enough ingredients to eventually make 960 loads of laundry.  That should last about 5-6 years!  The first batch I made enough for 64 loads.  That should get us to Christmas!  This is a really cost effective way to do your laundry, both Arm and Hammer and Borax are about $6/box and the Naphtha bars are $1.30 each.  Coming out to around 3-4 cent a load.  Not bad if you ask me!!! 

P.S.  Here is a photo of the little gift bag I made a few weeks ago: