what a slippery situation we have.

Today we made our own laundry detergent and glass cleaner!  It is way cheaper than buying it in the store, I made 2 gallons, and it cost me about 75 cents.  So it is costing us just over a penny for enough laundry soap for one load of laundry.  It doesn't take very long, either.  It took me about 20 minutes to do this first batch.  The recipe is posted below:

Homemade Laundry Soap

1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap, as listed above

½ cup washing soda

½ cup borax powder 

~You will also need a small bucket, about 2 gallon size~

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan.  Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts.  Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved.  Remove from heat.  Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket.   Now add your soap mixture and stir.  Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir.  Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel.  You use ½ cup per load.

To make it smell like something other than soap, you can add essential oils, 1/2 an ounce to 1 ounch per batch.

Today I used an Ivory soap bar rather than a Fels Naptha soap bar, which I usually use.  I don't think it melted as well as the Fels Naptha, but it still worked. :)  

If you want a recipe with a larger quantity, I will post my Mothers recipe down at the bottom of this post.  It makes 10 gallons rather than just 2.  Great for bigger families!

Next up is the glass cleaner!  Super quick and easy to mix up, and all the ingredients are stuff people usually already have around the house.  I used it in the bathroom earlier today, it works great!  Just be sure not to add too much dish soap, as that is what leaves streaks.

Glass Cleaner

1/2 cup ammonia

2 cups rubbing alcohol

1 teaspoon dish soap

1 gallon of water

Mix ammonia, rubbing alcohol, and dish soap into a gallon sized jug.  Add water to top.  You can then just keep refilling your Windex bottle with this.

Side note!  In this post I have been mixing different household cleaners together..  I got the recipes from people I know.  Please do not mix any household chemicals together without researching them first, it could cause a dangerous chemical reaction!




10 Gallon Laundry Soap Recipe




4 Cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup 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)


-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.