Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent -- Duggar Style!

As some of you know, my husband and I have 5 children:  7, 4, 3, 2, and 3 months.  Our friends and family sometimes tease us about ending up like the Duggars.  We could do a lot worse, I say! 

Especially now that we have a large family, though, I'm all about saving money.  Um, y'all know this about me by now!  So when I heard about making my own laundry detergent, I was all over it.  But because we live on a farm, this also needed to actually clean our clothes!  I'm pleased to report his is easy, effective, and CHEAP. 

What you will need:

1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap
1/2 cup Borax
5 gallon bucket
Empty laundry soap dispenser
Essential Oils (optional)

All of these ingredients are very inexpensive!!  The top 3 "ingredients" can be found at Walmart for about $3 or less.  A 5 gallon bucket and lid can be found at Lowes for under $6 or so.

Step 1

Grate the Fel-Naptha bar into 4 cups of water in a pot on the stove top.  Heat on medium-low heat, stirring constantly until dissolved.  This took me longer than anticipated.  I was stirring for about 10 minutes and still had a couple of very small chunks.  They didn't seem to mess anything up.

It was more dissolved than this by the time I was done stirring.

Step 2

Once your bar soap is dissolved, fill your 5 gallon bucket half way with hot water.  Then add your dissolved bar soap plus 1 cup washing soda & 1/2 cup Borax.  Stir until dissolved.  This didn't take long. 

1/2 cup Borax

1 cup washing soda

Stir until dissolved

Step 3

Fill the 5 gallon bucket the rest of the way with hot water.  If you'd like to use the essential oils, let this cool first and add 10-15 drops per 2 gallons.  Cover with the lid (don't snap it on unless you have a tool to easily take this off) and let it sit overnight. 

**I would recommend a Gamma lids for your bucket.  These have a base that snaps onto your bucket but are a screw top so you can easily access the contents.

Step 4

In the morning, the detergent will have congealed and needs to be stirred.  The Type A personality will attempt this with a spoon ... unsuccessfully.  :-)  Just stick your arm in it to break it up.  It has the consistency of Jello, and you need to break it up so you can pour it in your detergent dispenser.

You can see that I started with a spoon, but I quickly put the spoon and camera down to use my arm.  :-)

Step 5

Fill your dispenser with half detergent and half water. 

Step 6

Shake well before each use as it will gel.

I chose not to add essential oils this time around.  Some ideas for those of you who would like to add them are lavender, lemon, wild orange, or melaleuca.  The detergent has a fresh scent on its own but doesn't scent the clothes after washing.  Personally, my essential oils are more for medicinal use and are too expensive to use just to make our clothes smell good.

I've had great success with this recipe and will never buy detergent again!  My ingredients will last me a LONG time!  In the end, you will have 10 gallons of laundry detergent. 

Happy washing!

Until next time,

Pam

Wordless Wednesday - Boat Days

 

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Chevron Personalized Lulu Dress + Giveaway

I have developed a small obsession to Chevron, so when Charlie & Mills asked me to do a review, I chose the Chevron Lulu Dress for them to send Isabella.  I had a really hard time choosing a dress from her Etsy store because there are so many great fabric choices.  The Lulu Chevron Dress ultimately won my heart over with the aqua chevron and pink sash.  It is offered in sizes up to 5T, so I chose it for Isabella.

Seriously adorable, right?  She has worn this out twice now, and we have people constantly stopping us to comment on how much they love this dress.

The price of this dress includes monogramming, which makes the dress even more adorable.  I love this dress so much and I knew I wanted to save it for Kallie Jane to wear one day, so I didn't have it monogrammed(If I had thought this through, I would have had both of my girls share the same 1st initial).  This is the picture from Charlie & Mills Etsy shop.

In addition to their etsy shop, Charlie & Mills has their own Website that features exclusive products.  Their full selection of fabric and ribbon options is on their facebook page.  They love doing custom orders, so if there is something you have have in mind, message them!  Here are a few of my favorite products they make.  Check out that cute bow and suspenders that would be SOOO cute for matching brother pictures.

Win It

Charlie & Mills is giving one of my readers their choice of any item in their etsy store.

If for some reason the rafflecopter form isn't showing up, visit Charlie & Mills and tell me which item you would choose if you won.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Contest ends at 11:59pm EST on June 10th when I will draw a winner at random. Please leave your email address if it is not visible on your profile. I will notify the winner and they will have 24 hours to respond!

Open to US Only

This was not a paid post and honest opinions were used. The opinions are solely my own and may vary from others. Thank you to the company and/or pr agency who supplied the product for review and giveaway.