@ kellycrash What is your goal in making your own laundry soap? Is it due to cost? Control of ingredients? Environmental concerns? Before using and promoting a homemade laundry detergent recipe, do you fully understand the role each ingredient plays? What is the hardness of your water? Do you understand how soap interacts with hard water, and the mess it can make in your machine? Do you know the final alkalinity of the wash solution and how that may or may not affect corrosion of your spider assembly? Soap flakes will create soap scum when combined with hard water. This will stick to your clothes, but what's even worse is that it will coat the inside of your machine and get you well on your way towards a mold/mildew/odor problem. Washing soda is a precipitating water softener, so again if you have hard water this is going to cause a white, powdery residue to coat your clothes and washer parts. Alkalinity is a well known enemy of the aluminum spider assembly at the rear of all front load washer drums. Particularly alkaline wash solutions may need the addition of sodium metasilicate or similar product to protect your spider from corrosion. If the soap does not rinse away properly, or you use ingredients that form a precipitate, this will coat your spider with possibly alkaline products, significantly accelerating corrosion and reducing the life of your machine. While homemade laundry soap or detergent may be a frugal person's fantasy, it's a "cheap at any cost" solution. If you don't know the long term effects of what you are putting into your machine, your frugal fantasy may end up costing you thousands of dollars down the line for a new machine or to replace ruined clothes. We have so many good detergents on the market today, most researched and formulated by people who are degreed, trained chemists. Why would we want to turn back the clock and use something in our machines that product science has rendered obsolete? It's almost like saying "hey, don't use your washing machine - use this washboard instead." Personally, I prefer benefitting from modern research and science versus turning back the clock and using ingredients that were prevalent in the 1800s. But that's just me. My personal opinion: stay away from this stuff unless you know exactly what you're doing.

Here's 10 recipes. It's pretty forgiving as to formulations by the looks of the recipes. Some like to add water softener, OxyClean, dishwashing detergent or other additives to help with their needs. 10 Homemade Laundry Soap Detergent Recipes Recipe #1 1 quart Water (boiling) 2 cups Bar soap (grated) 2 cups Borax 2 cups Washing Soda Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until soap is melted. Pour the soap water into a large, clean pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved. Add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed. Cover pail and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. Stir the soap each time you use it (will gel). Recipe #2 Hot water 1 cup Washing Soda 1/2 cup Borax 1 Soap bar Grate the bar soap and add to a large saucepan with hot water. Stir over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted. Fill a 10 gallon pail half full of hot water. Add the melted soap, Borax and Washing soda, stir well until all powder is dissolved. Top the pail up with more hot water. Use 1 cup per load, stirring soap before each use (will gel). Recipe #3 Hot water 1/2 cup Washing Soda 1/2 cup Borax 1/3 bar Soap (grated) In a large pot, heat 3 pints of water. Add the grated bar soap and stir until melted. Then add the washing soda and borax. Stir until powder is dissolved, then remove from heat. In a 2 gallon clean pail, pour 1 quart of hot water and add the heated soap mixture. Top pail with cold water and stir well. Use 1/2 cup per load, stirring soap before each use (will gel). Powdered Laundry Detergent - Recipe #4 2 cups Fels Naptha Soap (finely grated - you could also try the other bar soaps listed at the top) 1 cup Washing Soda 1 cup Borax Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container. Use 2 tablespoons per full load. Recipe #5 Hot water 1 bar (4.5 oz) Ivory Soap - grated 1 cup Washing Soda In a large saucepan add grated soap and enough hot water to cover. Heat over medium-low heat and stir until soap is melted. Fill a large pail with 2.5 gallons of hot water, add hot soap mixture. Stir until well mixed. Then add the washing soda, again stirring until well mixed. Set aside to cool. Use 1/2 cup per full load, stirring well before each use (will gel) Recipe #6 2.5 gallons Water (hot) 1 Bar soap (grated) 3/4 cup Washing Soda 3/4 cup Borax 2 TBS Glycerin Melt bar soap over medium-low heat topped with water, stir until soap is melted. In a large pail, pour 2.5 gallons of hot water, add melted soap mixture, washing soda, borax and glycerin. Mix well. Use 1/2 cup per full load. Recipe #7 2 cups Bar soap (grated) 2 cups Washing Soda 2 - 2.5 gallons hot water Melt grated soap in saucepan with water to cover. Heat over medium-low heat and stir until soap is dissolved. Pour hot water in large pail, add hot soap and washing soda. Stir very well. Use 1 cup per full load. Recipe #8 2 gallons Water (hot) 1 bar Soap (grated) 2 cups Baking soda (yes baking soda this timenot washing soda) Melt grated soap in a saucepan with enough hot water to cover. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring frequently until soap is melted. In a large pail, pour 2 gallons hot water. Add melted soap, stir well. Then add the baking soda, stir well again. Use 1/2 cup per full load, 1 cup per very soiled load. Powdered Laundry Detergent - Recipe #9 12 cups Borax 8 cups Baking Soda 8 cups Washing Soda 8 cups Bar soap (grated) Mix all ingredients well and store in a sealed tub. Use 1/8 cup of powder per full load. Recipe #10 - (Powdered) 1 cup Vinegar (white) 1 cup Baking Soda 1 cup Washing Soda 1/4 cup liquid castile soap Mix well and store in sealed container. I find it easiest to pour the liquid soap into the bowl first, stirred in the washing soda, then baking soda, then added the vinegar in small batches at a time (the recipe foams up at first). The mixture is a thick paste at first that will break down into a heavy powdered detergent, just keep stirring. There may be some hard lumps, try to break them down when stirring (it really helps to make sure the baking soda isnt clumpy when first adding). Liquid Detergents Note: Soap will be lumpy, goopy and gel-like. This is normal. Just give it a good stir before using. Make sure soap is covered with a lid when not in use. You could also pour the homemade soap in old (and cleaned) laundry detergent bottles and shake well before each use. *If you cant find Fels-Naptha locally, you can buy it online (check Amazon). Optional: You can add between 10 to 15 drops of essential oil (per 2 gallons) to your homemade soap.

It's nice to have choices....and this is a good example of those choices. No one is saying NOT to use one kind or another, just sharing our experiences. groomingal - I used fragrance-free liquid softener (I guess that adds to the price of doing laundry, doesn't it?) because my clothes were as stiff as a board using homemade soap (I always line-dry clothes). My SIL, who is always going to a dermatologist for one reason or another, said her doctor said the fragrance-free liquid softeners and softener sheets were just as toxic (if not more toxic) as those WITH fragrance. So I haven't used liquid softener or softener sheets in a long time, but switched to homemade soap and vinegar rinse. With homemade soap I had to add vinegar to EVERY load. Now I just add it to the kitchen towel load, and the bath towel load, and probably don't need it for them. Homemade soap doesn't rinse out of clothing as well as Charlie's does, and I don't like to waste water on multiple rinses. We're often in drought conditions around here and I try to use the least amount of water possible. You can really feel the difference - even clothes wet from the washer washed in Charlie's feel softer... No more board stiff blue jeans. If one dries clothes in the dryer, this won't be as big a problem as line-dried. It's a given with soap that you'll get a soap build-up over time - that's the nature of using natural soaps. Something I read recently about using soap in laundry - "soap causes the fabric to deteriorate while leaving an odor". I can vouch for the odor. Off-season clothing that had been in storage often had an acidic or rancid smell and had to be washed before we could use them. I suspect that's from the fat in the soap that's used in the mixtures. While saponified beef tallow can be used to make a satisfactory soap, there are some substances in tallow that do NOT saponify, and have been known to cause acne and skin breakouts (homemade soap can be a problem in cloth diapers causing diaper rash). So instead of soap made from beef tallow, choose soap made from palm, castor, coconut, or olive oils. It's even worse if people use cold water wash and homemade soap. Neither soap nor detergents clean effectively in cold water below 65°F. Detergent manufacturers and care lables define cold water as 80°-85°F. I'd occasionally use ALL for awhile to clean and brighten clothing after a number of months of using homemade soap and things began to look dingy (from soap and hardwater). Homemade soap isn't as powerful as commercial detergents, so I found myself adding Oxyclean and Cascade to improve cleaning - which add to the cost per load. Another thing about using homemade soap if you have hard water; instead of a couple T. of homemade soap, you may have to use as much as 1/4-1/2-cup in really dirty loads of laundry, as well as BIZ, to get the dirt out. We normally don't even use a full tablespoon of Charlie's Soap per load. I'm not seeing as much wear on our clothing as when I use homemade soap. I'd also say if people are just starting to use homemade soap, it takes several washing to rid your clothing of the build-up from your original detergent and softeners (if you used them). It will take several months before you get the true experience of clothing with homemade soap. So one or two weeks isn't a good trial period for homemade soap. But after all that, I still keep the ingredients in storage should times get tough and I would need to make homemade soap again. I occasionally still make a Liquid Natural Soap to use on bedding and as an all-purpose cleaner: 1 c. liquid Castile Soap (I use Dr. Bronner's) 1/3 c. of salt 1 c. BAKING soda 1 c. vinegar 40 drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract Essential oils (optional) To half a gallon of water, add the salt and baking soda which has been melted down over low heat and just enough water to help it dissolve. Add Castile soap and the vinegar. Fill your gallon jug up the rest of the way, and then add Essential oils and Grapefruit extract. You'll need to shake this mixture each time you use it. You can use this as an all-purpose cleaner in a spritz bottle. -Grainlady

Over the years I have been making this I have made 14 batches of it. I have given a lot of it away to my family. I have always used Fels Naptha and I grate it with my food processor, much easier that way and it will melt quicker if you put the grated soap in the hot water and let it set for a bit before stirring it. Don't leave it on a burner. I am planning on making some more really soon. I don't dilute the soap after I take it out of the five gallon bucket, I just use less in my washing machine. No need to have water stored with soap any more than you have to. Thanks Jasdip for the recipe. Sue