Hippychick's Gardens

i've been meaning to do this for a long time but today is the day. we're mixing up a 4 gallon batch of laundry soap at home and folks it's easy as pie. you can do it and save some serious laundry bucks. all you need is water, a bar or two of fels-naptha soap, though some folks use ivory soap, washing soda and borax. most everything is easily procured at the grocery. the toughest item to find might be the fels-naptha but you can find it if you ask around or you can try ivory soap for now. here's what you're looking for:

and here's the procedure. it's easy, give it a shot. note the recipe offers two options a 2 gallon or a 5 gallon. i used a single bar of fels-naptha, so i'm just doubling the 2 gallon recipe. the bar of soap will need to be chopped up quite fine in order to dissolve completely in the water. i chopped up the fels-naptha bar and then ground it up in my food processor. some folks grate the soap like you would grate cheese, your choice.

the recipe is from an old issue of countryside magazine.

here is the fels-naptha dissolving in the water on the stove.

here is the borax and washing powder measured out. don't add this to your mixture until the soap bar is completely dissolved and you have taken the soap water mixture off of the heat. once off the heat, add your extra warm water and stir well. then add the powder and borax, you'll notice the mixture thicken. that's when you add the additional cold water, stir and let it sit.