2012 January 24 « Thoughts of a Young Christian Woman of America

Yes! I finally made some! Even though grating the bar of soap made my arms ache a little, it is well worth it!

1 bar of Fels-Naptha grated
Add to two quarts of water on the stove top, stir until melted. Be attentive to it!
Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full with very warm water.
To the bucket add 1 cup of washing soda (Arm & Hammer) and 1/2 cup of borax (20 mule). Stir until dissolved.
Add the melted soap mixture. Stir together.
Fill the rest of the bucket with warm water.
Cover and leave it to sit over night.
In the morning it should be a lemon pudding type texture.

That is what I did on Friday. On Saturday I didn’t have time to fill up my empty Tide and Wisk detergent bottles. On Sunday my eagerness got the best of me and I began to fill them up. Since my soap had the consistency of Jell-O instead of lemon pudding I decided to fill my bottle half full of soap then fill the rest with very warm water.

Yesterday was spent experimenting on with my concoction and I was rather pleased with it. With every use I shook up the bottle. The consistency of the soap was marvelous and when my clothes came out of the dryer they didn’t smell like anything but clothes. The only load that really had a scent still on them was the towels but it wasn’t too bad. The only thing I didn’t experiment on were Aaron’s dirty clothes, which require at least three cycles, along with pre-soaking and hot water. If I can’t use my detergent on his clothes I can still use them on mine and it will still save money.

Under my laundry sink sits 10 gallons of laundry soap in used Tide and Wisk bottles. Each time I pass them I am happy to know that I have made a fulfilling dent in our grocery bill.