Simple homemade laundry detergent

Number two of the eco-me series!  I'm getting rid of the complex, chemical laden household supplies that I never knew I could live without.  As I'm researching the web and prodding my grandmother with questions about how they use to do things, I'm learning that with a few staples, you can do pretty much all of your household duties with ease.  AND it's MUCH Much cheaper!  I've ordered something called Soap nuts or soap berries that can be used alone as a soap for laundry, dishes, counters, floors, even your body and hair!  Now that is what I call ALL-NATURAL!  But I've heard some reviewers complain about its inability to get out tough stains.  Well, with a house full of boys, I'm going to need to keep something on hand just incase the soap nuts don't do the job on important clothing articles.  This laundry detergent is super easy to make (it literally took me 5 minutes my very first time), it is amazingly cheap, can be purchased in the grocery store, and there's no long list of chemical compounds that you cannot pronounce! YAY!  So without further or due, I give you the easiest recipe I could find on the web, with a little touch of me :D.  Thank you Potholes and Pantyhose for this great recipe!

Now, you may say "why would I want to buy these things and go through the trouble of making my own, when I could just buy the pre-made stuff?  Well, the answer is in the money breakdown (besides the fact that you know you're using good old fashion ingredients instead of all of that bad junk), not to mention, the boxes are still full after making a 48 load batch.  I'm not sure how many batches I could get out of these boxes, but I'm thinking at least 3 (just make sure you have 3 bars of soap).

What you'll need:
A Large storage container, that will hold 32 oz (tupperware, glass, or even a ziplock will do)
1 box of Borax
1 box of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 bar of  Soap (I am making my own, but if you choose to use store bought, most recommend Ivory, Zote or Fels Naptha (found on the detergent Isle).  All of these brands are made with sodium tallowate, like most soaps,  which is extracted from animal fat.  If I were going to use a pre-made soap, I would purchase a castile soap, which is vegan.  I took this picture before I knew :(, but you can see my little homemade soap there at the bottom :).

For more information on these ingredients, please see the very bottom of this post.

Borax $3.38 for 76 oz = 9.5 Cups
Arm & Hammer $3.00 for 55 oz = 6.8 Cups
Soap $1.00 per 48 loads

Borax = $ .67  For 48 Loads
Arm & Hammer = $ .90  For 48 Loads
Soap = $1 For 48 Loads

Total = $2.57   for 48 Loads
that is = $ .05  Per Load

Average 48 Load Laundry detergent $11   Vs.  Homemade detergent $2.57?  Savings of  $8.43!
HELLO!

That being said, let's move on!

Directions:

Grate your bar of soap with a fine grater, or use your grater wheel in your food processor
Change your grater to a regular blade in your food processor if you chose to be lazy like me ;)
Process your soap for about a half a minute with the regular blade to chop up your soap slivers
Add 2 cups of Borax and 2 Cups of Super washing Soda to the processor with your soap
Process until mixed thoroughly, it should resemble regular washing detergent!
This batch makes 48 Loads

Put in an air tight container, and make a cutesy label, if you choose!  Use 1/8 Cup of detergent for regular loads, and 1/4 Cup for Super dirty loads!  I chose to put the recipe on my label, so that I don't have to go fishing for it when it's time to make a new batch.

I imagine you could use a blender to make this, or mix it by hand, but I haven't tried those methods, and was satisfied with the 5 minutes it took to complete this with a processor.

Enjoy for yourself, or give as a gift!

Copied and Pasted for your viewing pleasure :D

Borax

Chemical Compound from the earth

Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. Powdered borax is white, consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water. Wikipedia

Formula: Na2B4O7·10H2O

Molar mass: 381.37 g/mol

IUPAC ID: Sodium tetraborate decahydrate

Melting point: 1,369°F (743°C)

Density: 1.73 g/cm³

Boiling point: 2,867°F (1,575°C)

Sodium carbonate (also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals), Na₂CO₃ is a sodium salt of carbonic acid. It most commonly occurs as a crystalline heptahydrate, which readily effloresces to form a white powder, the monohydrate. Sodium carbonate is domestically well known for its everyday use as a water softener. It can be extracted from the ashes of many plants. It is synthetically produced in large quantities from salt (sodium chloride) and limestone by a method known as the Solvay process.

HOMEMADE VEGAN SOAP
Soap made by hot or cold processes, where a sodium hydroxide (lye) and water mixture,  along with oil molecules are bound together to form glycerin.  The Lye, once bound with the oil, makes a chemical change, and is enveloped in the oil, so that it is no longer caustic to the skin.