First make sure that you have these supplies.  You need a clean and empty 5 gallon bucket with a lid.  You need a medium sized pot, a long handled spoon, a grater, and a measuring cup.  You also need access to the kitchen sink.  Now for the ingredients.  You need a bar of laundry soap.  I use Zote because the local grocery store carries it.  Fels Naptha, Kirk’s Hardwater Castile, or Ivory are acceptable soaps.  You just don’t want anything heavily perfumed.  You need borax and washing soda.  These are fairly easy to find on the cleaning aisle.

Grate the bar of soap into the pot.  The soap looks like mozarella cheese so my kids and I tease each other with reminders.  “Don’t eat the soap.”  “Hey, remember that is not cheese.”  Now add 4 cups of hot water and turn on the burner to a medium low heat.  Stir with your spoon until the soap has melted.  This is the longest part of the process.

It really does look like mozzarella cheese.

In your 5 gallon bucket, put a cup of washing soda and a 1/2 cup of borax.  Now pour in your melted soap mixture and stir.  You also have the option of adding any essential oils at this point.  I chose Eucalyptus and Lavender.  I used 25-30 drops of each.  The use of essential oils is completely optional.  I buy mine from a company called Beeyoutiful.  I saw from their catalog that they now have lemon oil which I want to try.

When the powder has dissolved, add hot tap water.  Fill halfway and then stir.  Fill all the way and then stir.  Put on the lid and allow it to sit for a day.  It will almost turn into a gel.  At this point, you can pour into an empty laundry detergent container.  Fill it halfway with water and shake.  It needs to be diluted in order to flow through the built-in nozzle of the bottle.  Or, you can fill the container with only your detergent.  Pour out half of what you would usually use because it is concentrated at this point.  Or, you can just scoop out about 1/4 cup of detergent from the 5 gallon bucket for each load.

Filling the bucket with hot water from the tap.

As the water is flowing into your washing machine, add the detergent and let dilute before putting in your clothes.  I have begun doing the latter.  It just works better in the area I have.  Also the kids know one scoop does the job instead of eyeballing the amount they pour into the machine.  If I am washing a load of whites, I will occasionally add hydrogen peroxide to the water to help brighten the whites.  It is much gentler than bleach.  If my clothes are extremely smelly like wet, moldy towels, I will also add some white vinegar.

Using this recipe for laundry detergent is very inexpensive and easy to make.  My children could make it by themselves.  Regardless if you dilute the detergent or use less in its concentrated form, the recipe yields the equivalent of 10 gallons of laundry detergent for about $2.00.  You cannot beat that.  I urge all homemakers to try it.