Little Suzy Soapmaker!

So, I bought some homemade laundry soap at the Farmers Market over the summer and I love it! It wasn't any more expensive then the storebought stuff, but it was soo much better! I loved it and it got me to thinking... thankfully there is a world of information out there on the internet including so many recipes for homemade goods such as laundry soap, dishwashing detergent and liquid hand soap! So, I bookmarked a site that has many of these recipes for me to try Someday... well finally someday has come!

So, here are the ingredients....

Borax

Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

Ivory bar Soap

wooden spoon

1/2 cup measuring cup

kitchen grater

This is soo easy to make and I even recruited Zoe to help me "shave" the soap. Which she loved doing. So, you take a regular kitchen grater and grate your bar of soap... whatever kind of soap you choose. I chose Ivory b/c it's not too sented and not too expensive. There is an actual laundry bar soap- Fels-Naptha that you can also use.

I picked up all my soap making supplies at my local grocery store. I was not able to find them at Wal-Mart but only at Dillons. I have not checked at the Hy Vee yet, but I'm curious to see if they have it there. It's all relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things. It will be more up front, but not in the long run! Take for instance you buy at 76 oz box of Borax and only use about 4 oz. Wow! you'll get a lot of batches out of this one box!

Then you mix 1/2 cup of Borax, 1/2 cup of Washing Soda and the grated up bar of soap! Now, it says you should use a wooden spoon to mix to a fine powder, but I realized that it's soo much easier and faster to just use the utensils God gave you at the end of your arms! Mix till a fine powder- laundry detergent fineness. Then use 1 tblsp in each load. If you want you can add 1/4 cup of Baking soda to help deodorize more. It is not a necessity, but doesn't hurt. Another thing you can add is 2-4 drops of essential oil drops- lavender, peppermint oil, tea tree oil... I'm sure there are a lot of other options out there that I have yet to experience! I can't wait to though! This makes about 16 oz laundry detergent or 32 loads. I double up the batch but if you wanted to do seasonal smells then just do about 16 oz at a time.

Now if you really want to capitalize on the initial cost then make some Dishwashing Detergent at the same time. You make it with the ingredients you now have on hand... 1/2 cup borax, 1/2 cup washing soda, 1/4 cup kosher salt, and 2 oz or 1/4 cup citric acid. Now to find the citric acid....you can use 10-20 packets of lemon kool-aid- unsweetened or check your local health food store. Put it in a container and shake shake shake! Depending on if your water is hard or not you might need to use more or less citric acid. If you end up with a foggy film on your dishes then try adding more citric acid. I also use about 1/4 cup of white vinegar as a rinse agent instead of store bought jet dry. This makes about 32 oz. Use 1 tablespoon for each load.

So, now you can become little miss Suzy Soapmaker youself! Really, this is easy, it took me about 15-20 minutes to do each batch. I also think I'll give these out as Christmas gifts in jars that I can decorate really cute! Cheap and Practical for all! So, good luck and enjoy!