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Wash Your Clothes for Less...a lot less!

I've been threatening to make my own laundry detergent for quite sometime now.  Matt has been less than thrilled, picturing stained clothes coming out of the dryer, never to be clean again!  My friend Stacy (the same Stacy who is doing the Thirty One fundraiser!) posted the recipe she has been using and shared how much she loves it, so I decided to just go for it.

But then my local stores didn't have any of the ingredients I needed.

Dagger.

My equally frugal sister also decided to make her own laundry detergent, without us even talking!  She went to the Super Walmart and found everything we needed.  Score!

This is SO easy.  I don't know why I waited so long to make it!

Materials:  4 bars of Fels-Naptha soap, Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, Borax, and Lavender oil.

Some people put a little baking soda in too, and some use the baking soda in place of the washing soda.  I didn't put any in mine...just the washing soda.  I think it's kind of up to you, but some have said that washing soda works better than baking soda.


Put a trash bag in a clean bucket so that you can stir your ingredients together.  

Grate the 4 bars of Fels Naptha over the bucket.  This is by far the longest and hardest part.


Then add the whole box of Borax and Washing Soda.  Stir it around with your hands until it is well mixed.  

Then add some drops of lavender.  I didn't measure at all.  I just shook some in, stirred it with my hand, shook more in, stirred, etc.  

The scent is kind of strong in the bucket, but is very pleasant on the clothes.  Matt was worried his clothes were going to reek, but it's a really light fragrance.  I love it!

You only need 2 tablespoons of the mixture per load, and less if you have a small load.  I usually do full loads and 2 tablespoons have been fine.  I've done 5 loads of laundry so far, and some of it has been pretty dirty.  It works really well!!!  

The best part:  these ingredients cost me $10.50, and it yields 288 loads.  That's 4 cents a load, folks!!!!!  (I already had the lavender, so I didn't include that in my cost estimate.  It costs about $10 for a 4 oz bottle, but it will last you forever!)

I buy the big jugs of All Free and Clear from BJs for about $12 a jug (if I'm lucky enough to have a coupon!) and it's for 150 loads.  

Umm....this is almost DOUBLE the amount of detergent!!!

Love it!


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