- A typical recipe for natural ingredient liquid laundry soap contains pure soap, borax, washing soda and water. Use a pure soap, such as Fels-Naptha or Kirk's Castile. This laundry soap is non-sudsing and contains no fragrance, color or filler of any kind.
20 Mule Team Borax and Arm and Hammer Washing Soda are nationally available brands. Borax is sodium borate, a mineral that is mined mainly in the western U.S. and Tibet. It is environmentally safe but should not be ingested. Buy it as a white powder in a box in the laundry aisle.
Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda is sodium carbonate, not to be confused with baking soda, which is sodium bicarbonate. It is a degreasing agent and stain fighter. Washing soda should not be used on silk or wool fibers because it can strip the natural oils from the fibers. Buy it as a white powder in the laundry aisle.
Fels-Naptha and Kirk's Castile are bar soaps also found in the laundry aisle.
To make liquid laundry soap, grate 1/3 bar of either soap and dissolve it in 6 cups of boiling water. Add 1/2 cup of washing soda and 1/2 cup of borax and stir until dissolved. Pour 4 cups of very hot water into a large plastic bucket (at least 2 gallon bucket). Add the hot soap mixture and stir well. Add 5-1/2 quarts of water and stir. Let this set for 24 hours. It will form a liquid-gel that resembles egg-drop soup texture when it is done. Use 1/2 cup liquid soap per washload. Adjust the amount by the size of your loads or by how dirty the items are. - Borax is available in a 76-ounce box for about $4.29. This is about 20 cups of borax and costs about 11 cents per 1/2 cup.
Washing soda is available in a 55-ounce box for about $3.79. This is about 12 cups and costs about 16 cents per 1/2 cup.
Fels-Naptha soap and Kirk's Castile soap are about $1.09 per bar. This is about 36 cents per 1/3 bar.
63 cents per batch of 2 gallons with 64 half-cup uses per batch equals about one penny per batch.
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