The ingredients you will need are:
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Arm & Hammer Washing Powder
1 bar of Fels Naptha or any kind of soap that you prefer. (Fels Naptha is a laundry soap)
1 Tablespoon of Tea Tree Oil. You can find this in the pharmacy section of your local Wal Mart or most health food stores. You could even find it in your local pharmacy (I would call before I leave the house though...cause I'm lazy like that.)
6 Cups of water in a pot for melting the soap
5 Gallon bucket
about 8 to 10 gallon jugs or you can store the mix in the five gallon bucket until you are ready to use it. Just remember you will need to add equal parts water to the finished mix.
Step 1. Grate the soap into a bowl
Step 2. Be sure to scrape the skin right off your thumb while grating the soap and curse colorfully. Proceed to wipe the seeping blood off on your jeans and continue grating.
Step 3. Pour the grated and possibly blood soaked soap into a pot with 6 cups of WARM water. DO NOT BOIL! And allow the soap to melt. The finer you grate the soap, the easier it melts. There was one stubborn piece of soap that just didn't want to melt and I had to show it tender loving care in the form of mashing and crushing. So remember: the finer the soap, the easier the melt.
Step 4. Fill a five gallon bucket half full or half empty with water....whatever your view on life. Either way it has to be half (or if you're like me and didn't think ahead before melting the soap, use an empty cooler)
Pour in your melted soap and add your cup of Borax. Pour it in slowly or you'll end up with big white clumps in the bottom and mix well.
Step 5. Pour in your Washing Powder and mix well. As with the Borax,
pour slowly and mix well.
Step 6. Now add your Tablespoon of Tea Tree Oil. This did NOT smell the way I imagined it would. It was actually quite pleasant.
Step 7. Realize that the mixture is beginning to gel up and play with it like a preschooler plays with playdough. Then giggle with glee that it feels like you imagined the slime would feel from the old Nickelodeon days of Nickelodeon Guts and Wild and Crazy Kids.
Step 8. Suddenly remember the recipe says to let it sit in the bucket COVERED for 24 hours, then remember you lost the lid to the cooler you are using months ago. Swiftly panic.
Search the entire house, frantically, for an empty bottle of any kind. Once located, pour your mixture into the containers until half full, or half empty, whatever your view on life. Either way it needs to be half.
Step 9. Because the mixture gels up so quickly it will likely clog the funnel like mine did. If this happens, just lovingly grab a stick or spoon handle and lovingly stab it into the mixture violently, forcing the crap down the funnel and into the bottle.
Then realize you have only one bottle left and you have about three more gallons to in the cooler. Call every relative and friend you know, and beg for their empty bottles. When none come up because, unlike you, they keep their house clean, remember you had an empty laundry bottle that you had thrown in the trash a few days earlier. Run to the end of the driveway, fully intending on digging through your own trash to find one bottle, only to realize the trash guys were on time this week. Curse colorfully and swiftly panic.
Step 10. While searching frantically for an empty bottle, allow your ADD to kick in and take pictures of cool mushrooms and pine cones. Suddenly remember you haven't taken the recycling of 2 months ago, to town yet. Scare the CRAP out of your dog by squeeling and running for the recycling pile. Locate a 3 gallon Laundry bottle and praise your powers of procrastination.
Step 11. Proceed to pour remaining liquid into Laundry bottle and close it with satisfaction that you are now a green cleaner.
Step 12. Now allow the gel to rest for 24 hours and when that time is up, shake the crap out of your bottles and add water until the bottle is completely full. Shake the crap out of it again and you now have homemade and environmentally friendly laundry soap. You will also need to shake the bottles before every use because it settles quickly. Admire your handy work and pat yourself on the back.
Yes those are Mrs. Buttersworth bottles. Because I'm awesome like that.
Also, do not put the grater you used to grate the soap in the dishwasher. No matter how clean you think you got that thing, it will still foam up like crazy!
I hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as I did.
