Ma's Liquid Laundry Soap

"I came up with this recipe when my boys were just being…boys. Their clothing was not getting clean with the standard Fels soap recipe. I found myself adding more of this and that and so I just designed this recipe. I make no claims except that it works for my messy, grass stained, paint slathered, dirt ground in boys clothes."
 
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Ready In:
24hrs 20mins
Ingredients:
7
Yields:
2 gallons
Serves:
64
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ingredients

  • 23 bar fels naptha laundry detergent, grated
  • 23 bar kirks castile soap bar, grated
  • 2 cups washing soda
  • 2 cups borax
  • 14 cup glycerin
  • 2 gallons hot water
  • 20 -30 drops essential oils, suggested Rosemary, Lavendar, Tea Tree
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directions

  • Place 1 quart of water into a medium pot over medium heat. Add the Fels and Kirks and stir until melted.
  • Add the Soda and Borax and mix until the mixture thickens.
  • Place one 1/2 gallon of Hot water into a three or four gallon bucket and then pour into it the soap mixture and stir well.
  • Add the glycerin and essential oils to the mixture and fill to the two gallon mark on your bucket or simply add another 5 quarts of hot water.
  • The glycerin acts as a stain remover and the essential oils suggested have antibacterial and/or antifungal properties.
  • Set in a safe place to cool for 24 hours.
  • Stir and use 1/2 cup to 1 cup per wash load depending on size and level of soiling.
  • You can also use this directly on stains as a pretreatment.

Questions & Replies

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Reviews

  1. Like other reviewers, I wasn't satisfied with the results of the traditional Fels recipe. I just made this receipe and it's currently cooling so I haven't used it yet so can't comment on effectiveness, but I will update. The cooking process took quite awhile, because I added the soap flakes all at once and they clumped and took a long time to melt. Next time I will add the soap flakes a little at a time, and this should reduce the prep time quite a bit. I was very careful to ensure that all the soap was melted and I stirred the mixture constantly throughout the whole process, and I still had a lot of clumping and separating on the surface of the mix. It looks and feels like soap curd (bathtub scum), so my theory is that this separating is due to the hard water minerals in my tap water. I just skimmed this curd off the top, like how you do when making clarified butter. I figure that the resulting detergent will be much better for both my clothes and the washer (Gramma Rox - maybe doing this would make the detergent safe for your washer?). Next time I'm going to try distilled water, and I'm hoping this will eliminate the separating altogether.<br/><br/>UPDATE: It worked out so much better this time! What I did differently: I used distilled water (heated on the stove prior to adding soap); I shredded my soap flakes much finer (by scraping with a serrated knife, instead of a cheese grater) , and added them to the water a little at a time to keep them from combining; I kept the heat on very low - at first a "2" on my electric stove, then a "1". I stirred the whole time while the soap was melting, and this took about 10-15 minutes. I added borax first, and it became very creamy. Then I added the soda and it became almost cottage-cheese like in texture. When I added it all to the hot distilled water in the bucket, I used an immersion blender to mix it up. Every time I stirred the mixture, I would stir first with a wooden spoon, then with the immersion blender. No soap curd at all, and a nice homogenous mixture.
     
  2. I have not tried this recipe although I plan to. I was reading the reviews and a couple people asked about the clumping. Try not letting it get to a boil. As it is cooling, keep stirring the whole batch, like every hour or so. Hope that works for you.
     
  3. I am really, really happy with the results. I too wasn't happy with the standard fels recipe, so I gave this one a try. So far, it has been very good at removing stains, who knew glycerin was a stain remover? I used local soaps that are very similar to those in the recipe and rosemary oil. Thank you very much for posting :)
     
  4. UPDATE: In the end, I stopped adding the water at all. Just ground everything up, spread it out to dry and used it that way. But I have an HE washer. The soap (probably overused it) caked up and my washer stopped emptying. The repairman told me I have to use the low suds soap labeled HE OR ELSE. Sniff. Any ideas? ORIGINAL: I love this soap! It does clean much better than the regular Fels recipe, but then it is much more concentrated (and therefore more money) as well. The only problem I had was that it separated into liquid and lumps the first time I made it. The problem is that when you are stirring it is hard to tell when it is dissolved. The second time I cooked it much longer before adding the borax and washing soda and cooked it after I added them as well - it still clumped. Things I did differently the second time: I used my turkey deep fryer outside and tripled the recipe. I first heated the six gallons of water and moved it off the heat. Using another kettle I added 3 qts of hot water to the shredded soap. Cooked, added extras, cooked some more and then added it all back into the fryer kettle. Worked great! I'm going to store the soap in clean kitty food buckets w/lids. I used homemade castile soap made with lard instead of kirks, which I can't find locally. At any rate, for six gallons of soap I spent less than $7 and it works as well as anything I've ever purchased. I do usually add vinegar as fabric softener to fully rinse it out and reduce buildup in the washer.
     
  5. I made this for my best friend who is an ironworker. He comes home from work on a daily basis caked in dirt, rust, and various fluids. After using this stuff he swore he'd never buy laundry soap again, as it does a better job even if he adds Clorox 2 to the store bought stuff. I'm getting ready to make it to replace the regular fels soap because I have two dirty little boys too! Thanks so much for an inexpensive alternative that doesn't put up with dirt!
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

I am the mother of a Jewish family. Our children range in age from 30 to 8 years old. I have two grandsons. I love to bake and cook with all of them sharing tips and secrets and laughs and sorrows. I find the kitchen is one of the places where the life blood of our family centers. We raise miniature dachshunds and pekingese on the side and have homeschool our children for over 16 years. <img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/adoptedspring08.jpg">
 
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