I finally made my own laundry detergent and fabric softener!

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From my previous post , I had posted recipes on how to make your own laundry detergent and fabric softener. Well, I finally made it here and tried it, and I have to say, it works GREAT! See the previous post for exact steps, but here was the gist of how I did it.

*I made a double batch and used a 5 gallon bucket with lid to store it. I plan to use my existing store-bought laundry detergent spout container as a refill bottle.

I ended up using a whole bar of ivory soap for the double batch (instead of 2/3). I grated it into my large pot. Then I took the pot and added the water as listed in the recipe and heated it until the soap disintegrated and melted down. Once there, I added the powders and stirred until dissolved on the stovetop. Once I was to this point, I then transferred the liquid mixture to the 5 gallon bucket to add the amounts of water to further mix in (again, all were doubled). Final outcome was a well dissolved liquid (soon to be more like a liquid-gel) that worked well with our hard water out here. My first load of laundry with it did quite well.

I also made up a single batch of the fabric softener and stored it in a well-rinsed old bleach bottle that was labeled with "Fabric Softener" and also had the recipe written ON the bottle to make it easier to fix up a batch later when I run out.

All in all, it was incredibly easy and for $0.72 to make a 64 load amount of detergent (mine was actually a double so it's more like $1.44 to make 128 loads), that is some SERIOUS savings!