Homemade Cleaners

Anyone who knows me very well knows I am a big time bargain shopper!  I love to save money, I'm pretty passionate about it!  When Joey and I first got married and I stayed home, I learned all kinds of ways to save money on household things, and I got really really into couponing.  I was one of those crazy ladies with a big binder and everything.  I still coupon, but it's very different now, because doing things that way takes ALOT of work and time.  One day when I was couponing, I was able to get a years worth of dish washing tabs for $1.50!  They were the Finish brand and they worked great in our old dishwasher that was not all that great at getting things clean.  So after the year was up and I had to buy some more I found out they are really expensive without a coupon!  But we bought some anyway because with only 2 of us, we don't run the dishwasher all that often.  A few months ago we got a new dishwasher and now it has the silverware compartment in the door, which I really like.  But...it is right in front of the place the washing tab comes out and I have found that the silverware stays covered in the soap and I have to re-wash them.  No point in having a dishwasher if I have to wash them too!  So I decided to see if I could find a recipe of my own to try instead of buying some more detergent.

I found an easy recipe on Pinterest...1 cup baking soda, 1 cup borax and 2 small packets of sugar free lemon Kool-aid.  I mixed it up and put 1 Tablespoon in the dishwasher and they came out clean and the silverware didn't need to be re-washed!  I estimate the cost was around $.75 and it will last me 32 loads, I'm super excited!

I was telling a friend about it on Facebook and some other friends mentioned they wanted my homemade laundry detergent recipe too, so here it is with pictures ( I took a picture with every step, but couldn't get them all to work right!) 

Now I'll say this, I have been using this for a while now, almost 2 years I'm pretty sure.  At first I was a little skeptical and only used the homemade stuff on sheets and towels and still used the store bought stuff on our clothes, especially Joey's since he can get pretty dirty at work.  But a few times Joey washed his clothes and used the homemade stuff and it worked just fine.  It doesn't have that nice smell that Gain has, but the clothes are clean!  We recently had an issue where some very expensive laundry deteregent I got for free was eating holes in our clothes, so I'm really sold on my homemade stuff now!!

Supplies:

• Washing Soda (not baking soda, I'm pretty sure I found this at Brookshire's in the laundry aisle, don't think I was able to find it at Walmart)
• Borax - you should be able to find this at any grocery store on the laundry aisle
• Soap - Fels Naptha is recommended most often, you can find that on the laundry aisle also, but you can use other soaps, but avoid soaps that say "moisturizing" or that have heavy perfumes because they will be oily and you don't want that on your clothes!

Equipment:

• Grater
• Bucket (at least 2 gallons)
• pan
• Containers ( I like to use old detergent containers because they have the cap that is the right size to measure out the new stuff, but I also use gallon jugs when I don't have the laundry containers)

Instructions

• Heat 3 pints of water (which I'll be honest, I had to look up becaues I'm not used to measuring in pints! it is equal to 1.5 quarts)
• Grate 1/3 bar of soap

• Add soap to water hot water, stir until it dissolves
• Add 1/2 cup Washing Soda and 1/2 cup of Borax and mix until dissolved ( you don't want it to boil)
• Put 1 quart of hot water in your bucket 
• Add your mixture
• Fill the bucket to the 2 gallon mark with cold water and stir well

• The mixture will begin to gel a little
• Pour it into your containers

• When you are ready to use, shake your containers and use 1/2 cup.  It will be kind of gloppy and there won't be much suds, but it works! 

Here is the website I got the recipe off of, http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/ there are 9 other ones you can try, including powdered ones.  You can also go to Pinterest and find all kinds of recipes on there.  It may take you a little while to find what works for you, but I recommend trying because even if you make some that doesn't work right for you and your family, you are only talking a small amount of money to try.  But once you find the right recipe, you can save hundreds a year depending on your family size.  I was able to get 4 plus bottles of what I would have regularly bought in the store and paid at least $5 a piece for, sometimes more .  Not sure on the exact estimate, but I think I spent less than $1 for the ingredients here!  I love saving money!!!