Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

A few weeks ago I made some laundry detergent. I followed this recipe. And let's just say this from the beginning: if you really want to learn how to make laundry soap, go follow those directions. Because I'm pretty much going to tell you about the wrong way to do it.

The equipment:

  -- a five-gallon bucket

  -- six empty gallon containers (these are used white vinegar jugs)

The ingredients:

  -- 1 1/2 cups washing soda (not baking soda)

  -- 1 1/2 cups borax

  -- 1 bar Fels-Naptha soap

The instructions:

Grate the bar of soap using a hand cheese grater, or cut it up in a food processor.

It looks very much like shredded cheddar cheese. But it is not. Do not let your children eat it!

Place grated cheese soap in the largest pot you've got. Add water to fill up the pot most of the way, about 12 cups. (Here's where it starts to go very wrong.) Heat, uncovered, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until soap dissolves.

If you decide to heat it over high heat and you have terrible electric burners that start to boil things like crazy out of nowhere, your pot of cheese soap and water will explode and the boiled-over mess will be everywhere!

Do NOT be tempted! High heat versus medium heat will not save you any time in the long run!

Please, just learn from my mistakes, people.

Add washing soda and borax. Stir to dissolve. Remove from heat.

Pour 12 cups of very hot water into your bucket.

Add what's left of your boiled-over hot soapy mess. Stir.

Fill up the rest of the bucket with water. Stir as best as you can. Let sit for 24 hours. (Safety tip: If there are little ones with big heavy heads toddling around, be sure they don't find their way over to this or any other bucket full of liquid.)

After 24 hours, the soap should have goopified nicely.

Funnel into the gallon containers, leaving some room at the top to make them easier to shake before using. Use 1/2 cup per load.

And here is the final product of your labor:

Along with this: