Homemade laundry soap

Confession: I. Am. Frugal.
I don't want to spend money on things if I don't have to. Some probably would call me cheap in some senses. I also really care about the environment, I like to run, bike, hike, ski, walk, camp, and be outside, so I personally try as hard as I can (some times it goes better than others) to be as environmentally conscientious as I can.

Today's post is brought to you by my frugality. A couple years ago while living on a graduate student's budget (read that line as "ridiculously small") I needed laundry detergent and as I was in a big box store staring at my options of detergent I became frustrated and decided several things: I don't have a clue what 90% of the ingredients actually were, this was going on my body, and I hated the price of a gallon of detergent. Sooooo I began to do my research and started looking at some make your own options for laundry soap. I soon realized I needed to decide liquid or powder. Previously I had ALWAYS used liquid laundry detergent, why?, because that's what mom used. As I began reading about the make your own liquid detergent I realized I wasn't really interested in having a five gallon bucket of liquid detergent sitting around my dorm room (read ridiculously small space) and began pondering the powdered stuff.

Then it happened, I stumbled upon someone's recipe (I wish I knew who I got this recipe from, but due to it's ridiculous simplicity I have it memorized and no longer have any idea where I got the recipe from).




RECIPE for HOMEMADE DRY LAUNDRY DETERGENT:
1 cup washing soda
1 cup Borax
1 bar of ridiculously cheap soap - I use dove with no fragrance or lotions in them (the no fragrance or lotions is key)

I think I have calculated it costs me about 3 cents per load.

I use an old plastic container from my kitchen to store my detergent in and make two batches at at time (because that is what my container will hold). I first put in two cups of washing soda, two cups of borax, and then shred up two bars of soap. I use my kitchen cheese grater and wash it well when I am done. I have used it for a couple years and it is fine.

Once I have everything in the container I mix it up well and call it a party.

I use one rounded tablespoon of the detergent per load.
I do pre-treat any major stains just as I would anything else and I use whatever stain treater is on sale when my previous bottle runs dry.



Do you make your own laundry soap?
Do you have any diy recipes you want to share?