Homemade Laundry Detergent

As promised here is the post about the laundry detergent.  Honestly, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.  I researched a lot of different recipes and decided I would use the recipe found on The Delgado Seven but slightly modified it.


Here is the basic recipe:
1 cup of Borax, 1 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, 3 bars of Ivory soap.  I also added 1 cup of oxy clean and bought some lavendar essential oil to add to the load for a great scent.  I put a couple drops in the fabric softener dispenser and it makes the clothes smell WONDERFUL.

A friend of mine who also makes this said you can use just one bar of Ivory soap and it works just as well.  So, that is what I did.  I used my Microplane grater to grate the soap, and it was super easy.  

I tried to use my food processor first but it just made the soap clump up and made a HUGE mess.  To store it I had a container that some very sweet student had given to the hubs with cookies in it for Christmas last year.  It worked perfectly.

I've done quite a bit of laundry with this so far and it works great!  I'm very pleased.  It was super cheap to buy, the most expensive thing was the essential oil and that isn't a mandatory ingredient.  It was 8.99 and honestly, I use such a small amount, that bottle will probably last me FOR-EV-ER!!