Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

I have been making my own laundry detergent for a year and I LOVE it!! It is very good at cleaning my clothes and it is also very cheap. And to top it off....it is GREEN! Everything in it is natural and it is safe for front loading washers since it does not suds up.

Here are the ingredients that you will need:

Arm & Hammer washing soda. You can find this at Wal-mart in the laundry detergent aisle.

Borax. You can also find this at Wal-mart in the laundry aisle.

Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap. I use liquid and I buy it at my local health food store. My favorite scents are lavendar and citrus, but in the end you really can't smell it on your clothes.

You will also need a 3 gallon buckets, air tight containers for storage, a funnel, 1/4 cup measuring cup and slotted spoon for stirring.

Here are the step-by step instructions:

Step 1: Fill bucket with HOT water. Fill it to the 1 gallon mark.

Step 2: Pour in 1/4 cup Borax and 1/4 cup washing soda.

Step 3: Pour in 1/4 cup Castile Soap.

Step 4: Stir well. I use a slotted spoon and it seems to mix it well.

Step 5: It is now ready to pour into an air-tight container. I have a 1 gallon pitcher and I use plastic orange juice containers.

Step 6: It is time to do laundry! Add 1/4- 1/2 cup detergent to each load. I just keep a styrofoam cup handy to measure. As times goes on your detergent may settle. Just give it a good shake to mix it up and it is good to go.

I like to make 4 gallons at a time so that I don't have to make it as often. I put my containers on the top shelf so that they are handy.

Remember to use 1/2 cup of each ingredient if you are going to do 2 gallons at a time.

Thanks for reading and happy cleaning!

I am back!!!

Wow! It has been 4 months since the last blog! So much has been going on.

The end of September, my grandfather Wood fell and "broke" his back. He ruptured his vertebrae and was pretty much bed ridden for a while. I was working at Scrastampin and basically I didn't have the time to spend on "D-daddy" that I felt was needed. I took a semi-permanent vacation from my job so that I could help with him. He is still very fragile and weak. Jeanette (my step-mom) does the majority of overseeing him and the rest of us try to fill in the gaps.

On Halloween we left for DisneyWorld. All 21 of us! It took 4 vans to get us down there. We had fun....but it was a lot of work.

When we returned, I started helping a little with my step-grandmother. She had lung cancer and was gradually getting weaker and not wanting to eat. She still managed to give us some laughs. She passed away the week of Christmas. We will miss her greatly, but I know that she is pain free and trial free! The picture above is Ruth and D-daddy Tipton when she was going through Chemo in Houston.

I am back to trying to do a little card making and scrapbooking. I will start sharing soon. I have missed it so much! It is my therapy!!