Liquid Laundry Soap Recipe

Due to the high demand from all 3 of you I am posting my top secret and highly confidential soap recipe. (Actually, it's a handout from a RS meeting.)

Liquid Laundry Soap

4 cups hot water

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar

1 cup Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax

1. 
   
   Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap melts and is dissolved.


2. 
   
   Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full with hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and leave over night.


3. 
   
   Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap then fill to top with water. Shake before each use.


4. 
   
   Optional: add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons.

Yield: 10 gallons diluted, 5 gallons undiluted

Use: Top load machine: about 2/3 cup (180 loads) Front load machine: 1/4 cup (640 loads)

Tips from the master

1. 
   
   You can find Fels-Naptha soap in the cleaning/laundry section of your store. It is not carried everywhere so check a few places. One of my Walmarts has it, one does not. I couldn't find it in Target but WinCo has it. I've never paid more than $1 for it. I'm sure it will vary by location.


2. 
   
   Don't boil the soap when you are melting it. I don't remember why. I just remember you aren't supposed to. Probably because you don't want to cook the soap, just melt it!


3. 
   
   When you are mixing it up, it looks like lemonade. Do not drink it. It is not lemonade.


4. 
   
   I stop following the directions after #2. Like I said, I don't dilute anymore and I've never bothered to add essential oils. Neither of those steps are necessary.


5. 
   
   If you do add essential oils, only add it to small (1-2 gallons) amounts of soap at a time. If you put the oil in the whole thing, they will dissapate before you get around to using it. Thus wasting your essential oils.


6. 
   
   I use the measuring scoop from my last store bought package of laundry soap. Filled to the top it is about 2/3 cup.


7. 
   
   Also, like I said in the last post, this stuff does separate with the top gelling. I've found that shaking the bucket a bit mixes it around enough. Otherwise you can keep a stick or something handy to stir it before you use it. I think it is the Borax that makes it gel like that.