Serving Up {Cleaners}: Homemade Laundry Detergent

I finally did it!  I made homemade laundry detergent and it was so fun!  Even my young guys were fascinated as they watched me grate the soap and blend everything in my blendtec.  In fact, it was darling because my 5 year old kept telling my (almost) 4 year old that "even though mom is using the cheese grater, that is soap, not cheese, so don't eat it".  So thoughtful and cautious.  I only wish he lived his own life as cautiously :)

But back to the laundry soap.  There are recipes all over the internet for homemade soap and although they all seem pretty similar, I was surprised by some saying you only need 1 tsp. of detergent per load and yet other's saying to use 2 Tbs.  I guess that you can make your own decision.  I personally load my washer pretty full so I use 1 Tbs. for a regular load and use a bit more for a heavily soiled load.  So far it works!

FYI - the cost for all my ingredients (keeping in mind I already had the oxi clean on hand) was less than $9.

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HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT     
printable version

3 cups Borax
3 cups Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
3 Fels Naptha Bars
1 cup Oxi Clean (optional)

Using a cheese grater, grate the Fels Naptha bar into a large bowl until completely shredded.  Add Borax and Washing Soda and combine well.  At this point I processed the detergent in 2 cup increments in my blendtec to further combine the ingredients as well as more finely distribute the Fels Naptha.  Add the Oxi Clean (optional) and stir well to combine.
These amounts filled an empty 128-ounce Laundry Detergent box but you could store it in anything.
Use 1-2 Tbs. detergent per load.