Homemade Laundry Detergent

Inspired by Megan, I decided to make my own laundry detergent. I have not been overly impressed by the products I've been using and after trying several different brands and combinations, I thought this was worth a shot. So, I followed Megan to the "Green Group" on babycenter.com and found this recipe:

Ingredients

1 5-gallon bucket with lid
1 bar soap (this attempt...Kirk's Original Coco Castile Soap)
1/2 cup borax
1/2 cup washing soda (Arm & Hammer; not baking soda)
soup pot
water
cheese grater

Instructions

Pour 4 gallons of warm water into 5 gallon bucket and set aside. Pour 4 cups of water into soup pot and start simmering. Grate your bar of soap into pieces and add to simmering water. Do not let it get to a rolling boil, it will make a mess. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes to let all the soap dissolve. Add 1/2 cup borax and 1/2 cup washing soda to 5 gallon bucket and stir. Pour in dissolved soap mixture into 5 gall bucket. Give it a good stir and pop the lid on. Tomorrow you'll have a snot-looking homemade laundry detergent that is earth friendly and it smells like your favorite soap. Use 1 cup per load. Make sure to stir it every so often because the slime sinks to the bottom and makes the stuff on top less effective.

This literally took Aaron and me 15 minutes to do! The only thing that takes any time at all is melting the soap.

Being a math teacher, I wanted to do the calculations on this to see how much it *really* cost.

Kirk's Original Coco Castile Soap: $3.39 = $1.13/bar

Arm & Hammer Washing Soda: $2.99 = $0.05/ounce

20 Mule Team Borax: $3.99 = $0.05/ounce

The soap was $1.13; a half cup of Washing Soda is 4 ounces, so that was $0.20; and another $0.20 for the Borax. That's a grand total of $1.53 for the batch I just made. (No, I'm not including the water or tax.) Since it made 5 gallons, and it takes 1 cup per load, that's 80 loads for a whopping $0.02 per load! (Or, $0.002 per ounce.)

To compare, I just looked on target.com, and Tide is on sale this week for $14.99 for 100 ounces. That is about $0.15 per ounce.

If you ask me, this is a huge cost savings. Now, to see if it works...