Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Duggars Laundry Soap

So I thought I would take my chance on home made laundry soap.   The Duggars have shared their recipe on their website and I must say....it was very easy to make!


Here is the recipe

4  Cups - hot tap water
1  Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax
- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)
*Arm & Hammer "Super Washing Soda" - in some stores or may be purchased online here (at Meijer.com). Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!! 

Now for my trial and error process of making my own laundry soap:)
These are the easy simple ingredients I used :)
Note to self...next time you grate Fels-Naptha....use a grater!!  Potato peelers take a long time :)
So I got my Fels-Naptha grated and next was to hit the stove and melt my goodies
I had read on another blog that this lady had contacted her washer maker to see if they would say whether or not this was a good laundry soap to use in a High Efficiency washer and the only thing they really said was that you shouldn't use soap that suds a lot or you may have to clean your washer more.  The lady stated that Fels-Naptha is not supposed to suds...well....it does...at least during the melting process :)

I also read on a website (again I cant remember the name) that it you put a wooden spoon over a pot of water it wont boil over

I learned the hard way that was untrue..as it did start to boil over (I caught it just in time) and found my spoon in the bottom of my pan! I swear that when I started this project that my spoon fit perfectly over my pot!!!!  Honest!!!  I thought heat caused expansion???  Guess not in this case?  Maybe because it was soap water??? I don't know! :)
Now it is time to pour the melted soap into a 5 gallon bucket, add the washing soda and the borax and fill the bucket about half full with water.  This causes a little bit of suds but it was nothing like the suds you get from dish soap.  The soap/water concoction will have a yellow tint to it as you can see in the picture above.  Mix well then fill the bucket all the way to the top with water.  Cover the bucket and let the soap sit over night to gel.  I used saran wrap and it came out fine :)
Once your soap has sat over night you can then transfer it into gallon jugs.  I saved milk jugs and washed them out with soapy water :)  For the laundry soap you only want to fill the jugs half way with soap, then the rest of the way with water.  I recommend that you use a funnel and the largest measuring cup you have.  use the measuring cup to get the soap out of the bucket then pour it into the funnel.  I used a ladle and funnel...took me a little longer :)

All in all this was an easy project!  One blog that I had read said it took the lady about 45 minutes to make it...I believe her!  Although it did take me 52 minutes...but I'm sure that when/if her soap melting started to boil over and if she turned her burner off....she remembered to turn it back on :)

I really need to see if I can find the other blog that I read more about the laundry soap from...got to give credit where credit is due :)


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