Homemade Laundry Soap

I had a lot of people asking about my homemade laundry soap recipe after I posted about it on Facebook, so I thought I would put the recipe out there for all to read.  This is recipe is all over Pinterest, so I'm not taking any credit for it.  My mom actually found this recipe and shared it with me.  I love it and have been using it for months.  I feel it works just as well as store bought stuff but it is tons cheaper and not full of harsh chemicals.  Normal laundry soap (okay I used to use Tide so that's what I'm going off of) is about $.25 per load.  This homemade stuff costs about $.01 per load!! That's some huge savings.  And you can choose whatever scent you'd like it to be, or leave it plain for a less intense flavor. :)

Here is the recipe:


Homemade Laundry Soap
1/3 bar Fels Naptha soap
1/2 cup Borax powder
1/2 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda
(All found in the laundry aisle at walmart)

Grate or chop soap and add to sauce pan along with 6 cups water. Heat on medium until melted. Add powders and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and pour into bucket along with 4 cups hot water. Add 1 gallon + 6 cups water and stir. (If you want to scent your soap, add at this point. Use any scent you like of essential oil. I use Airwick refill bottles and pour them directly in) let stand for 24 hours to gel.

This is a picture of the soap gel-ing up about 4 hours after I poured it into the bucket. 

Stir well and transfer to jars or bottles. (I use empty half gallon juice bottles that have been cleaned) Shake before each use as it tends to separate a bit. As a note, it tends to be a little more runny than store bought soap. Use 1/2 cup per load. Happy laundry-ing!

A bit of normalcy

Tonight out of nowhere, we had our first little taste of "normalcy" in our quiet, boring little lives.  Raegan has been doing so well in her new bed, despite the fact that she isn't really napping during the day.  She goes to sleep just fine and has adjusted to the big girl bed very well.  Saturday morning she even got up and back into her bed several times and fell asleep again until about 9:30.  All while Jesse was outside making all kindsa racket prepping our front yard for new landscaping.  

Now, let me start by saying that a typical response to us telling Raegan it is time to go to bed is a bit of whining, a few "no, no ni-night"s and her asking repeatedly to watch more tv. She settles into her bed just fine, but she puts up a good fight for a minute or two before we get there.  So you will see why tonight was a total shocker to us. We had finished dinner and Raegan had already taken her bath, so we settled down to spend some quality time with  the Bubble Guppies, one of her favorites.  Pretty soon she looked up at me and said "ni-night".  It was 7:15!!!  I asked her to repeat herself, and she did.  I said "you want to go night-night, really?" and she nodded.  She even hopped down from the chair and walked over to Jesse to five him a goodnight hug and kiss.  So I asked her again if she wanted to go to bed (you know, just to be really, really certain) and she said yes and reached for me.  I picked her up and she laid her head on my shoulder.  Which is the ultimate tell-tale sign that she is ready to sleep.  So we headed upstairs, I went through her new normal routine and she was out like a light in about a minute.  What?!  My husband and I hardly knew what to do with ourselves. Ha ha. We are just hoping that this means she is adjusting and starting to settle into a routine and is starting to love her new bed.  Now....let's hope she's not up at the crack of dawn tomorrow!!

Partyin' it up in the new bed with her cousins

driving daddy's "big tractor"

our awesome next door neighbors let Raegan use their swing set whenever she wants. They are the BEST!

Rae with Papa Mike opening her Easter eggs