As usual, I'm late to the party, but here you have it.

My version of homemade laundry soap. I know this has been floating around for about a bazillion cyber years now, but I'm finally on the bandwagon. I made a batch of laundry soap using some easy to find ingredients at my local chain grocery store.

These ingredients make a 48 load batch:

3 cups finely grated soap (I used plain old Ivory. 3.1 oz bars, which amount to about a cup each when grated)
1 1/2 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
1 1/2 cups Borax

I grated the soap right into my storage container (something with a lid that seals to keep out moisture) and then mixed it together with a fork. The Borax had some lumps in it, and the fork really worked well to combine it to a fine consistency.

It sorta looks like the shag rug in my living room, lol!

Based on my research, it seems that 2 TBSP is the "serving size" per load of laundry. So according to my math, I have 6 cups of product, which amounts to 96 TBSP or 48 loads.

If you want the price breakdown on how this compares to store bought detergent. Here's what I spent:

3 pack of Ivory Soap bars: $1.29
55 oz box Arm and Hammer Washing Soda: $3.29
76 oz box 20 Mule Team Borax: $3.89

I can get 1 batch per 3 pack of soap, 4 1/2 batches per A&H box and 6 1/3 batches per box of Borax.

I hope I don't lose anyone with all my numbers here-
The A&H breaks down to $.49/cup
Borax $.41/cup
Ivory $.43/cup

So it's $2.64 per batch or $0.055 cents per load


Even if I use cheap old Purex laundry detergent (which is what I did use fairly regularly) purchased at $2.99 on sale, it's $.09 cents per load. So I'm saving $.04 everytime I do the laundry!

I imagine if I can hit some sales and/or get coupons for any of the products I used to make my own, I could get the price down to $.02 or $.03 per load.

Now, this all being said, how does it work?

First, the smell going in is lovely. Fresh and clean, not perfumey at all. Coming out of the washer there wasn't really any smell at all. Not bad, not good. Just neutral. Which is fine with me.

I started with a load of moderately dirty clothes, nothing heavily stained, no big bulkly items, just to do a test run. I had a cotton sun dress in the load that had some white deodorant marks on it- which can sometimes leave residual marks/smells behind.

My homemade detergent got it all out and it just smells clean!

Oh and I also didn't use any fabric softener or dryer sheets, I wanted to see how this stuff works completely on it's own.

Next I got bolder and tried a load of beach towels.

And then finally- a true test for me- I did my whites.

Without bleach. Every load every time so far has come out smelling clean and looking bright. Even my bath mat- which takes a beating over the course of the week.

Oh- and I didn't miss the fabric softener sheets, even on my towels. They were still perfectly soft when they came out of the dryer.

So there you have it. My version of homemade laundry soap and how it works for me. Let me know if you decide to try your own!