Homemade Laundry Detergent

Our washer bit the dust.  So we decided to upgrade and we got a new washer and dryer.  I've been making laundry detergent for about a year now, in powder form.  It's just one part borax to one part washing soda.  It works pretty well.  However, we now have a front load washing machine and it needs to use HE detergent.  I had no clue if my homemade stuff was ok to use or not, but after a lot of research, I found it is just fine.  But I also found that more people liked liquid detergent over powder for a front load washer.  So I decided on the Duggar's recipe and made it yesterday.  

Recipe:

1 bar Fels Naptha

1 cup Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax

First you grate the Fels Naptha.  I used my food processor and it worked like a charm!  And I love the nice clean, fresh smell.

Then you heat it on med-low heat with 4 cups of water until it is dissolved and melted.

Then you add it to a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water.  After you stir it all up, you fill the bucket the rest the way with hot tap water.

Let it sit over night and it will gel up.

Stir it the next day.  Then fill an old detergent container half with detergent and half with water.  Shake it up and use 1/4 cup with each load.  This recipe yields 680 loads!!!!!  That's like $2/yr in detergent.