DIY Laundry Soap

My favourite household chore is laundry. I love hanging the clothes on the line because they smell so nice afterwards, it saves me money not using the dryer and it is good for the environment! I thought about how I could save even more money and so I looked online and found many different recipes for DIY laundry detergent. Luckily, I was able to find the ingredients at my local grocery store.

This was how much it cost me for the ingredients in Canadian dollars:

Borax $5.19

Washing Soda $6.39

Sunlight Bar $2.49 (package of 2)

I calculated one batch cost me about $1.75 and it makes 18 litres. I use about 1/4 cup per load which works out to about 1 to 2 cents per load. 

Ingredients

1 Sunlight Pure Soap Bar, grated

1/2 cup Borax (laundry booster)

1/2 cup Washing Soda (detergent booster and freshener)

4 cups water

Directions

1. Pour 4 cups of water into a large sauce pan on medium heat. While the water is warming up, grate the Sunlight Pure Soap Bar into a small bowl and then add it to the water in the sauce pan.

2. Stir the soap frequently until melted. Remove from heat and pour the soap into a large bowl.

3. Stir in the Borax and then the Washing Soda until it is dissolved.

4. Mix the concentrated soap mixture with 18 litres(around 5 gallons) of water. 

I didn't have a 18 litre container so I divided the soap mixture into different sized containers. I kept empty windshield washer fluid containers, large dish soap bottles, and empty laundry soap containers. I calculated that 3.5 tbsp made 1 litre of soap.

The soap does get a bit clumpy,  but all you have to do is shake it before each use.

For front loading laundry machines, use 1/4 cup per load.

For top loading laundry machines, use 1/2 cup per load.