Homemade Laundry Soap

Today was meant to be an X day but seems to be turning into more of a catch-up-on-all-sorts-of-things day.  This morning I went to have granola with yogurt and some defrosted apricots (from our old tree) and was disappointed to see that we were out of granola.  I've got a batch in the oven and thought I would add that recipe to my sidebar and then got distracted by the thought (and the dirty laundry that the boys are busy creating along with their papier mache projects) that it would be nice to have the homemade laundry soap recipe I use on the sidebar as well.

This is a very simple recipe, you only need  water, a bar of laundry soap (like Sunlight), washing soda and borax.

Grate 1/3 to 1/2 of the bar of one bar of sunlight (the smaller 65 g bar).  Put this into a large pot with 2 quart jars full of water (8 cups). Heat on medium until the soap is dissolved.  I then add 1/2  cup each of washing soda and borax and still until those are dissolved.  Turn off heat and add 2 more quart jars of water.  Stir.  (Your pot is probably getting fullish) 

I then divide this soapy solution between two old liquid laundry detergent bottles that I have.  Then I add 2 more quart jars of water to EACH jug and stir.  My total amount of water should be  8 quarts (32 cups) because this makes enough to do 64 loads of laundry using 1/2 cup per load. It will thicken up as it cools and you will be left with a gel like soap that dissolves nicely when you do your laundry even using cold water.  We've used it for years and find it works very well even on our grubby gardening and grubbier boys' clothes. ;-)   I've never figured out the cost exactly but it is pennies per load and, better yet, no artificial flowery smells and plastic bottles coming into our home.