Make your own Laundry Soap and other Money Saving Laundry Tips

Laundry. Laundry. Laundry. Yes, It's always on a mom's mind. Just when you think you're finally all caught up with laundry, You turn your back for a moment and..... There it is!! Enough dirty clothes to make another washer cycle a necessity!

I have learned to accept the fact that our clothes will never all be clean at the same time. However, I hated spending all that money on Laundry soap. No 15-20 dollars a month isn't a fortune BUT I could think of so man better ways to use that money!!

So started my search and experiment with home made Laundry soaps. And I have finally found one that works Perfectly for us! And costs me Just Pennies a load!

 What you need:

• Super Washing Soda
• Borax
• Fels Naptha bar soap ( I get mine at my local Grocery store)

Shred 3 bars Fels Naptha Bar soap. I use my hand cranked shredder but any grater will work.

Put shredded soap in a sauce pan and add water.

Add water till you have approximately equal amounts of water and grated soap.

Heat over medium heat until Grated soap is dissolved, stirring often and much.

Meanwhile, fill a 5 gal. pail with 4 Gallons of HOT water, Add 2 cups Borax and 2 cups Super Washing Soda. Stir until Soda and Borax are dissolved.

Add soap mixture to your pail of HOT water/Borax/Soda mixture.

Mix together well and Stir occasionally over the next few hrs until mixture is cooled down!

This 5 gal bucket of soap cost me approx 6$ and will last me about 2 month, using 3/4 cup of detergent for 1 large load of laundry.

Other tips:

• Never wash clothes unless they are truly dirty, I always go through the dirty laundry (especially my preteens') and if it has no visible dirt and doesn't smell dirty I fold it and put it away again. This also helps your clothes last longer.

• Use cold water whenever possible, and wait till you have enough dirty clothes to run a large load. This saves energy.

• Hang your clothes outside to dry whenever possible. In this part of the country it really doesn't make sense to hang laundry on the line when the temp is 10 below, so I  try to do a load or 2 each morning and hang it on a Drying rack. By dinner time it should be dry enough that 10 min in the dryer should fluff it up and finish drying it.

• Instead of dryer sheets, soak an old hand towel or wash rag in your favorite liquid fabric softener, Ring it out and let it dry completely. throw this in the dryer with your wet laundry instead of a dryer sheet. This rag should soften at least 40 loads of laundry.

Happy Laundry Day to YOU!!!!!