Recipe (small batch):
1 cup Fels-Naptha Soap (grated)
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup Super Washing Soda
I use my kitchen aid attachment to grate the soap, which goes pretty quick. I can imagine grating this by hand would be the biggest pain. After I grated 1 bar of soap, I measured it, and I got about 4 cups worth out of 1 bar. To make a large batch I do the following:
3 bars Fels-Naptha Soap (grated)
1 box Super Washing Soda
6 cups Borax
Use the following measurements in your washer:
small load: 1 tablespoon
normal load: 2 tablespoons
heavy load: 3 tablespoons
I know this sounds like it is not enough to clean your clothes, but it really is! After washing our towels and cloth diapers in this detergent, it has taken out any smells that were in them. Allen and I have been using this detergent for two months now and absolutely LOVE it! It keeps our darks dark and our whites white. The detergent smells SO strong, but with such a little amount in the washer, your clothes smell so clean! We have noticed our towels and bedding feels so much softer with this detergent than when we used tide and fabric softener. We will never go back to buying store bought laundry detergent again!
We purchased these items at Walmart in the laundry isle. Here are the breakdown of costs:
Fels-Naptha Soap: $0.97/bar
Borax: $2.98
Super Washing Soda: $2.33
I believe those were the prices I paid. I roughly calculated the cost per load. I figure we will get 192 normal loads out of the large batch recipe. I am guessing I used about 42 oz of Borax, so with the left over borax I figured it cost me $6.88 for the large batch...which breaks down to $0.035/load. That is amazing!(I will make another large batch soon and really figure out 100% accurate costs per load)
