The Easiest Thing You Could Ever Do

I'm not kidding.  This is so easy, it's hardly worth posting about.

As you may know, there are approximately 5,489,621 pins on Pinterest about making your own homemade laundry detergent.  I've pondered upon many of them for some time now.

Today, in demonstrating to all of you how to make your own LD (laundry detergent, duh) I will also be demonstrating, mostly to myself, the lost art of follow-through.

Follow-through, people.  Follow. Through.

This tutorial is an easy way to successfully accomplish a little follow-through.  Start to finish, that's what it's all about.

Back to the main topic.  LD.  There are two main types of LD, powder and liquid.  Some folks are for powder detergent and some are for liquid detergent.

The powder detergent is a little less messy of a process and it takes less steps to get to the finished product.  I am sure they both clean skid-marks to the same degree.

The total cost of the project was somewhere around $8 or $9.  Definitely less than $10.

I am not sure how many batches of laundry this stuff does, but I know it's a lot.  More than what a normal size container of Tide, Cheer or Gain can do.

I can also testify that this homemade concoction cleans very well.  A lot of recipes call for only the "Fels Naptha" laundry soap, but it leaves your laundry with little to no scent.  You may like that, you may not.  I like a nice, clean, fresh laundry smell, so I added Lever 2000 body soap to my batch.

Moving forward...

Homemade Powder LD Tutorial

The Cast & Quantities:
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Arm&Hammer Super Washing Soda (NOT Baking Soda)
1 Bar of Laundry Soap, aka, Fels Naptha

*Optional - extra bar of yummy smelling soap.  I hear that Dove is an excellent option.  I went with Lever 2000 because it was on sale and because I liked the fresh, clean smell (flowers and tropical scents are not my laundry preference).

**These ingredients are in almost every grocery store.  There's no need to make a trip to Walmart or Target, unless you want to.  Check out your local Food Lion or Publix (in my case, Giant or Fresh Grocer).

***I ended up making a double or triple batch of this stuff.  I didn't want to have extra borax and washing soda and bar soap around if I had enough left over to make more.  What ever you decide to do, just make sure to use a 1:1:1 ratio (1c. borax, 1c. soda, 1bar soap).  It's okay to use an extra bar of soap if you are wanting to up the scent factor.  Just keep that ratio in mind.

The Process:

1. Grate, grate, grate....oh, great.
- Grate all bars of soap, Fels Naptha and any other bars you may  be including.

- This will be an arm workout, unless you are already buff.  If so, please grate the bars of soap with your arms above your head.  You should feel the burn, as well as, the accumulation of soap flakes on top of your head.  Make sure to do this in a public place.  Thanks.

The soap flakes should look like this.

Note: This is NOT cheese.  Please keep it out of the reach of your small children and/or oblivious husbands/boyfriends.  Unless, of course, they have a tendency towards expletives and negative words.  In that case, I say...Eat Up!

2.  One and two and chop, chop, chop.
- This step isn't absolutely necessary.  If you don't have a food processor or a blender, don't fret my pet, just skip it (come on everybody and...skip it!).

-However, if you do have either of those small appliances, dust them off and dump in your grated soaps.

- Run it on the chop setting until your flakes turn to small, soapy balls...think, Dippin' Dots.

Dippin' Dots for your Laundry!

It already smells so clean.

3.  Dump your soapy crumbs into a mixing bowl of sorts.

4. Add 1 cup of Borax.

As you can tell by the picture, I used 2 cups.  I doubled the batch.  See note above, under Cast & Quantities.

5. Add 1 cup of Washing Soda

6. Mix it all together so everything is evenly dispersed.

7. FINISHED!!

- Use only 1-2 tablespoons per load.  I usually use two.  I like to overload the washer for some reason.  Feel free to use more if you have an extra dirty load.

- Make a cute label, if you want.  I printed this on label paper.  You know, the kind you can buy at Staples, like this.

Also, I don't have a color printer, so I had to print it in black and white.  It's much prettier in color.

How's that for easy, peasy.

Now that I've done one good deed for the day, I'm off to perform another by saving the world from greasy hair and BO. Shower time, ya'll!!

Keep Posted,

the rave