Well. I finally did it. About a year ago I remember seeing a blogger friend try a “similar” recipe and I though, “What, that can’t clean like the nice expensive ones do”… Then I lived my life for the next year buying my nice expensive laundry detergent. Certain it WAS the best after all. Then about 3 months ago I saw a random pin on making some! Still didn’t convince me. I was certain my GAIN was the best.  ((plus I don’t love change))

Then about 4 days ago mother in law made me some. I hesitated at first because of fear. The fear of actually “LIKING” it and abandoning my good ole GAIN. I smelled it and it smelled SOO good (even though my brain tried to convince me it wasn’t GAIN)…. Crazy but I am a total texture girl. I LOVED the way it looked and the texture it presented to me. OK. I am buckling at this point… Am I really thinking about trying this stuff….. I had to. It just sat there saying:

I’m CHEAPERRR
I’m prettierrrrr
I’m HOMEMADEEEE

So I put a batch of clothes washing and “tested” this stuff that keeps popping up in front of my eyes. I went about my business doing other chores until my nose sniffed some ridiculously  awesome smell. “There’s no way”, I said. BUT WAY! I secretly got super duper excited and after taking out my first batch I scattered through the dirty clothes to gather ANOTHER load! I kid you not.

So I sit here. Ready to share with you an amazing way to save SOOO much money (don’t worry I will break it down) by making your own laundry detergent.

Ingredients:

I got my BORAX from Wal-Mart. I got lucky because someone must have known I was coming and put ALL of the ingredients I needed right next to each other. Thanks Wal-Mart for making my life amazing! This box was about 3 bucks. The Borax cleans, disinfects and softens the water.

These babies were only .99 cents each! Epic deal. The Fels Naptha Soap is a heavy duty laundry soap bar & stain remover.

This was around 3.49 for the box. Still liking this!!! Arm & Hammer Washing Soda works on grease and neutralizes odors.

Mother in law told me she added this to enhance the smell so I figured I would try a little bit of it. I think she used another ingredient but I can’t remember what. Our recipes are not exactly the same but I am pretty sure they do the same job!! This was around 4.60 but well worth it.

Get something you won’t use for cheese (((ever again))) hehe…I had an old grater so I figured I would add to everything else it has been through.

Start by grating your bars of soap. I will put the recipe at the bottom of this post but I grated 4 bars of soap and pouring in all of your ingredients  (recipe below) it will look like this!!!

So pretty right!!!

I made some for my dad and I had to think of something to put on it so he would ALWAYS know what it was!! (you know men, they never REALLY pay attention more than once)… So I grabbed some bright neon labels that I had.

I grabbed one of my Martha Stewart punches and punched out a little sucker!

Just bright enough for him to ALWAYS see! (and not too girly)

Large Batch Recipe 

4 – Bars Fels Naptha Laundry Soap
1 box of  - Cups Mule Team Borax
1 box Cups Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 bottle of Purex Crystals

Grate soap using cheese grater. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Place in sealed container or tub and measure out two tablespoons (or 1/8 cup) for each load. I put a medicine cup for my dads batch. Two scoops from that is 2 tablespoons. I know everyone has tons of those suckers laying around!

Smaller Batch Recipe

2 – Cups Laundry Soap Shavings
(you can get this easily from one bar)
1 – Cup Mule Team Borax
1 – Cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

Follow instructions for above recipe.

I sure hope you enjoyed this post and let me know how yours comes out!!

Sending you all sortsa good energy to wash every single piece of clothing in your house (like I did),

This post is brought to you Plaid’s Martha Stewart line of paint and stencils. I received product for this post. All opinions expressed are 100% mine. You can check out Plaid’s full Martha Stewart product line here.