Thank you for posting that!

I'll get my daughter to help me make up a batch. She and I love that kind of DIY thrift.

 

Cheap BUT washes like nothing else, clean, and does NOT tear your skin up. Wash in homemade soap and line ddry- nothing better than fresh sheets to make you sleep.we Make and use it religiously.

 

Sounds like a winner, gonna ave to try it. Thanks

 

I have a friend that uses two bars of octagon soap instead of fels-naptha. She said that it works just as good.

 

I saw that although Amazon has the best price for Fels-Naptha soap, Ace Hardware is about the same after shipping. I went to Ace in Jamestown, and they had the Fels-Naptha, Washing Soda and Borax all lined up in a row on the shelf! My friend, who works there, said lots of people make their laundry soap, and one lady buys Fels-Naptha by the case. I asked him if he makes his own, and he pointed to the shelf above, where they stock Charlie's Soap. "That's what I use," he said.

I was walking my dog last night, and encountered one of my neighbors with their dogs. We were talking about the nice coat on one of their dogs, and the conversation turned to soap. I told them that we are about to make laundry soap, and they want to help... see what you started, Ponykilr!

 

I made my first 5 gal bucket about 2 months ago. Still over 3/4 full with 5 of us, 3 of which are in their teen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Awesome!

Well, it gelled up and is almost like jello. We have washed a few loads and so far, so good.
We use about a quarter cup, but maybe will adjust that for the best clean and frugality.

My wife is very impressed with it. It makes sheets simply smell clean with no perfume type odor.

Researching dish soap now....

 

Yeah, you did start something!
Told the wife about it right after I read it, she seemed interested. So later when we went to Wallyworld for other stuff, I slid over to the laundry aisle and wala! they had the Fels-Naptha bars and the Washing Soda. Soap bars were .97 ea and the soda was 3.26. We already use borax in the wash, still have 2 full boxes on the shelf. Going to give this a whirl when I get some time next month.

 

Researching dish soap now....

My daughter and I were talking about that... dish soap for machines has to be done such that it won't make a lot of suds. I wonder what surfactant is readily available...?

 

If you want something that acts as softener, you can pour white distilled vinegar in the softener cycle. We used it for a while. Gonna look into the soap. But my wife has nearly a years supply of dish soap, both regular and dishwasher. The coupon queen has struck on that one already.

 

If you want something that acts as softener, you can pour white distilled vinegar in the softener cycle. We used it for a while. Gonna look into the soap. But my wife has nearly a years supply of dish soap, both regular and dishwasher. The coupon queen has struck on that one already.

How much vinegar is needed per load?

 

How much vinegar is needed per load?

I'm curious about this as well.

 

I'm curious about this as well.

1/4 C to 1 C per load of straight vinegar for the rinse. We used it for a while. Things would get staticy some though. Supposedly to fix the static problem you can use.....

6 C water
3 C vinegar
2 C hair conditioner

or

2 C vinegar
2 C baking soda
4 C water

Just be warned the second one may fiz with the baking soda/vinegar mixture.

My wife finally quit using it. We have a lot of fleece and stuff that's really static prone. She just went back to store bought stuff. I guess she did not want to try the mixes, so I can't speak to how well they work. She wrote them down when she was looking into it. How much you use may depend on how hard your water is too.

 

Downloaded the recipe/instructions and sent it on to several others. Will be "cooking" up a batch shortly. Thanks for the link.

 

Just finished laundry detergent.

My wife found dish washing soap too. Gonna try this later.

 

This recipe wont work in a HE washing machine will it? We wash a ridiculous amount of clothes and would love to cut back on the cost some.

 

This recipe wont work in a HE washing machine will it? We wash a ridiculous amount of clothes and would love to cut back on the cost some.

We're gonna try it. Seems you just add less detergent. I can't think of a front load machine that is not HE.

 

Wife and I have been using this recipe for about 2 years now....once you get the process down it's easy to make. Get the kid(s) involved in the process...like a big family chemical experiment!!

 

Thanks for the post, Its on my list to do

 

We're gonna try it. Seems you just add less detergent. I can't think of a front load machine that is not HE.

According to the original recipe on the Duggar's website, you just use 1/4 cup for front load washing machines. That equates to 640 loads per batch.

 

According to the original recipe on the Duggar's website, you just use 1/4 cup for front load washing machines. That equates to 640 loads per batch.

I posted it on FB and a buddy has been doing this for 6 months. He just uses 1/8 cup straight from the bucket. I guess there are several ways to do it.

BTW, we are making a general purpose liquid soap tomorrow. General cleaning, hand washing dishes, and we'll try it in the dishwasher.

1/2 bar Octagon soap (grated)
1 gallon water
1 Table spoon washing soda

Heat 1/2 gallon of water in sauce pan. Add grated soap and melt. Pour this into large container and mix washing soda in with the other 1/2 gallon of water. Let sit overnight.

 

This recipe wont work in a HE washing machine will it? We wash a ridiculous amount of clothes and would love to cut back on the cost some.

I'm pretty sure this was discussed at the AR15 site. It can be used in HE machines because it is low sudsing (if that is even a word).

 

We're going to try this DIY Dishwasher Detergent soon:

http://www.diynatural.com/simple-effective-jabs-homemade-dishwasher-detergent-rinse-agent/

 

Here's out first batch of laundry detergent and our liquid soap run. We used the laundry detergent today and my wife said it worked as good as anything. We have not tried the liquid soap yet.

Laundry

Soap

MacEntyre, I've seen a few recipes where they sub sugar free lemon kool-aid as citric acid. It's got to be cheaper. We might give the above soap a try and see what happens.

 

definitely doing this, ridiculous what they charge for the store stuff.