The Homemade Laundry Soap Verdict

It works. I had to give the homemade laundry soap a go. Instead of the liquid version I tried a powdered version. Less fuss to make and easier to store. The comparison to store bought? I think it did just as well. Here's the recipe I used ...

Powder Laundry Soap

1 cup grated soap

1 cup washing soda

1 cup borax

4-6 drops essential oil (optional)

Mix all ingredients together and store in a container. Use 1 tablespoon for small loads and 2 tablespoons for large loads.

Easy, no?  Now for some more detail. As far as the type of soap to use? I went with a laundry bar (castile) that I found at my local health food store. I was going to use Fels Naptha soap,  because I remember my mom always having a bar of  it around for treating laundry stains when I was growing up. It did a great job too. She said her mother used it also, and would grate it with soap flakes for their laundry. I did buy a bar. The first thing I noticed was it had a different scent then what I remembered and second, they don't list the ingredients on the package. You have to go to the website to find that information. Kind of sneaky on their part. Anyways, like I said, I wasn't happy with the ingredients. As for other types of soap,  they do still make soap flakes, just google it. My research suggests the soap flakes are just castile soap. So, I would just go with buying and grating a bar of castile soap. I think it would be much more cost effective. Next up is the washing soda. What does it do?  It's  a great stain fighter, freshener, and a natural water softener, plus you can use it for lots of other household cleaning jobs.  Borax too, is a  stain fighter, freshener and water softener, and it also has many other uses. Finally, if you want some scent in your laundry soap, you can add some essential oil(s) to your mix.

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