Laundry Soap

An old high school friend of mine introduced me to this recipe for laundry detergent. I thought it sounded interesting and easy, and it's really inexpensive to make. So far I've found it's performance acceptable, and I especially love the fresh, clean smell of the Zote soap. I don't have babies in the house anymore, so I'm not sure how great it would be on breast milk or formula stains. I generally pretreat major stains anyway.

So without further ado, here is homemade laundry soap:

Ingredients:
2c. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soap
2c. Borax
1/2 bar Zote soap, grated



Put all ingredients in an old ice cream bucket or other container and mix well. You only need about 2 tablespoons per load in a front loading washer and maybe an extra tablespoon in a top loader. From experience, if you own a front loading washing machine, do not put this soap in the dispenser because the Zote will stick in the dispenser and not make it into the washing tub. I just dump it on top of the load inside the washing tub.

I bought a cheap cheese grater at the dollar store; it works just fine. Zote is pretty soft, and you can also substitute a whole bar of grated Ivory Soap if you can't find Zote. All of these ingredients may be a little tricky to find, especially the Washing Soda and the Zoat. I suppose Wal-Mart carries all of this, but you all know how I feel about Wal-Mart. I found everything at Super Saver. Zote comes in pink and white, so in the photo of the completed laundry soap you will see flecks of pink from my previous batches.