Sweet Home Sunday: DIY Homemade Laundry Recipes

Do you enjoy cleaning, laundry and all those other domestic chores? Me too! For those of you that read that question in horror, this must be odd for you. :) I'm going to be doing something new on Sundays as you can tell from that lovely picture of my kitchen above. On Sundays I will be sharing with you tips and ideas to save money around your home. I've found that the older I get the cheaper I get which is good news for you and good news for the wallet. I can practically hear my bank account swelling as we speak. So join me as I try new ideas for around my house that maybe could work for your home too.

The moment I always hate: when the laundry detergent jug starts to get very light. About that time I start thinking I could just add some water to maybe stretch out a few more washes. But then it cleans less efficiently and I end up getting mad anyways. Laundry detergent isn't cheap and it practically evaporates around here since I'm such a clean freak. I've heard that making your own products is usually the cheapest alternative. Making? Hmm. If it were really that easy wouldn't everyone be doing it? 

I started looking around and found a recipe. With only 4 ingredients. 4! The visions of me in a lab coat playing around in my basement and blowing something up started to disappear. And I also found a recipe for fabric softener. This is something that I might be able to handle. 

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

4 cups hot water

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar

1 cup Arm + Hammer Super Washing Soda

1/2 cup borax

Directions: Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted. Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot water. Add melted soap, washing soda and borax. Stir well. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken. Stir contents of bucket. Fill a clean used laundry jug half full with soap and fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use because it will gel. 

Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once cooled. 

Yield: Recipes makes 10 gallons

Top load washer: 5/8 cup per load {approx. 180 loads}

Front Load Washer: 1/4 cup per load {approx. 640 loads}

Cheaper Fabric Softener

1 container liquid fabric softener

4 sponges, cut in half

Directions: Pour entire contents of softener into 5 gallon bucket. Fill empty container with water twice and add to bucket. [2 parts water to 1 part softener] Add sponges to bucket. When ready to use wring out sponge and add to dryer. 

I knew there was a reason we kept all those buckets in our garage! Today I will be gathering up all my supplies and trying these out. I'll update after I'm all done and have pictures for you. I might even throw in a picture of my boyfriend standing there shaking his head at me while I do this {lol} Check back later today! 

[These recipes were found on www.duggarfamily.com. They have many other recipes you can check out. I received no compensation for this post or for adding the link. All opinions are my own based on my experience.]