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Wednesday, October 7, 2015

DIY Whipped Laundry Soap


If you are like me and are completely over paying high prices for name brand or even off brand laundry soap for that matter, and want another DIY project, try making your very own.

For this tutorial I will show you guys how I make this whipped laundry soap and the total cost was 15 bucks or less.

This is what I paid:

Fels Naptha for 4 bars 8.50 on Amazon (I have Prime, so no cost for shipping, but Amazon prices do vary)
Washing Soda at the local store 2.36
Borax at the local store 3.86

Totaling at 14.72

With this recipe you can make 2 jars worth per each bar of Fels Naptha.
This means 1 bar makes enough for 128 loads! Times that by 4 bars that means you have 512 loads for less then 15 bucks! The Washing Soda and Borax will see you through at least four batches. The total could be even cheaper if you can find Fels Naptha at your local Walmart for 98 cents per bar.

Seriously, I have no clue why I have not done this sooner!



DIY Whipped Laundry Soap

You will need:
Mixer or blender
Mason jars
Measuring cups
Butter knife
Spatula
Boiling pot
Food processor or grater

Ingredients:
1 bar of Fels Naptha
1 cup of Borax
1 cup of Washing Soda
4 cups of water

Grate the bar of Fels Naptha - I decided to use my hand grater but you can save time by using a food processor.  Either way, you will need to blend or grate the bar of soap finely. If it's a little bigger than mine, it will just take longer for it to be distribute evenly in the water. So my advice - a little longer in the blender or a little more elbow grease keeps your boiling time shorter.

Bring your water to a boil in a medium to large pot, and while you are waiting this would be a great time to mix the washing soda and borax together in a bowl.

Once your water comes to a boil add the grated soap and turn it down to a medium heat. Stir constantly!

*WARNING*
If you keep it too high you will end up with a huge mess of bubbles, probably all over your stove!

Once you have melted all the soap, start adding your mixture of borax and washing soda little by little. The point here is not to wait until you do not feel the grittiness from the powder, but to make sure you do not end up with huge lumps.

Once all is added, you then will need to keep stirring until you do not feel any grittiness at the bottom of the pot.

After this is done, you will need to take two mason jars and evenly distribute the mixture into the jars, then add water until you end up 2 to 3 inches from the very top of each mason jar. You will need this air pocket for the rest of the process.

Then close the lids very tightly and flip the jars upside down.

VERY IMPORTANT: Let this sit for 4 HOURS ONLY! Do not let it go longer!

Now you have a choice:

Option 1: Stand Mixer Method
After 4 hours, pour the liquid part into the mixer, then use the butter knife to cut up the soap and dump inside the mixer.  Mix on low for 2 minutes, then turn it higher for about 5 to 6 minutes or until whipped. Even after it's whipped, I let it keep going to make sure I get all the soap.

Option 2: Blender Method
Take the mason jar lid off and replace it with the blade cup from your blender, closing tightly. Blend to make the soap break up - you may need to rock the blender back and front a little to get the soap closer to the blades then keep mixing until you do not see any more lumps. This option will make it more of a thick mayo consistency and will be able to stay in that mason jar for storage.

If you did the Option 1 like I did, you will need to get a bigger jar to store it. To prove a point to my husband here is why you will need to do that.

Whipping greatly increases volume!
I was not an happy camper to have to scoop all of that back out of the smaller jar, so fair warning!

Then you are DONE!!
It only takes 1 tablespoon per full load of laundry, and you'll be saving money as well as greatly reducing unnecessary chemicals in your family's clothing.


Hope this is a big help! Happy washing!


17 comments:

  1. I'm so intrigued by this! I know many people who make their own laundry detergent, but I've never heard of a whipped version. It looks so pretty!

    I'm hosting a link party on my blog and we'd love for you to come by and link up with us! http://winsteadwandering.com/the-alder-collective-link-party-no-1/

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  2. Yes, I love and will never buy again other then the ingredients to make more. Which if you buy local and on amazon you won't need to for a while. Thanks for the comment and invite :)

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  3. I would love to make my own laundry soap. I do have most of the ingredients too.
    twinkle at optonline dot net

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  4. This is a great (and practical) idea. Do you by any happen to know how this would work on cloth diapers? Or if it will get kid stains out of the other laundry?

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  5. Heu Jessica sorry I saw your post a while ago but wanted to test that first. So I had to send out a batch to some friends that have babies that cloth diaper and the review was awesome! One is highly allergic to Tide so she was happy that it did not break little man out plus is got the stains out! On the others she had really bad staining so she washed and sun dried them and they came out great.

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  6. This looks awesome, and I love saving money. We were just gifted a 5 gallon bucket full of laundry detergent so it will be a while until we try this, I am pinning so I can find it again, and I really love that we will be using ingredients that aren't harmful to our bodies!!! Thanks.

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  7. Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop

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  8. Wow Adrenne you can't beat $15 for 512 loads. Thanks for sharing your recipe @ Dream. Create. Inspire. Link. I hope you will join us again tonight! Take care, Tara

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  9. I have all the stuff and this is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Have never heard of whipped laundry soap. I WILL make it this weekend!

    I am using this post as my feature in tomorrows #JoyHopeLive linky. Come check it out when it is live! http://www.mylifeinprogress.org/finding-joy-in-everyday-28/

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  10. This is a great and resourceful diy! Thanks for linking up at Merry Monday.

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  11. this seems like a much better option to the unhealthy laundry options available in store. I might give it a try. Thanks for linking up with us at the Best of the Blogosphere!

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  12. Very useful post, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop, pinning and tweeting.

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  13. Wow! This is definitely less expensive than buying the same amount of laundry soap at the store! I love saving money - I'll have to give this a try! Thank you for stopping by to link up at Talented Tuesdays!

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  16. I always like DIY projects! Happy washing!
    Clair Wayman.

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