The Experiment!

The Shirts Before:



Mustard Applied and Designated Soaps with each shirt:




THE RESULTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Homemade Liquid After:


Homemade Powder After:


Gain After:


And the winner is HOME MADE POWDERED DETERGENT! WOO HOO!

I also want to add, even though the liquid homemade didn't live up to the power of the powder, it still beat the power of GAIN! So, either way. I will not be purchasing soap but making it myself!

The Recipes:

Powder:

Ingredients:
1 Bar of Ivory Bath Soap (or any other bath bar of your choosing)
1/2Cup 20 Mule Team Borax
½ Cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda.
Container large enough to hold 2 cups of laundry detergent

Directions: Grate the soap with a grater or use a food processor. Add the ½ cup of Borax and ½ cup of washing soda to the grated soap.Shake and/or mix well

Use:One tablespoon of detergent is sufficient per load of wash. If you have a high-efficiency machine, you might want to experiment with using a little less detergent for normal loads. If your clothes come out feeling stiff, lower the amount of detergent. For clothes that are heavily soiled, add a teaspoon more of the detergent..

Liquid:

Ingredients:
3.1 oz bar Ivory soap (Ivory is chosen because it's all natural. You may use a soap of your choice)
1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
½ cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
Water

Tools:
5 Gallon container
Knife or cheese grater ( I think grating it is easier!)
Pot large enough to hold 5 cups of water
Long spoon (for 5 gallon container)

Instructions:
Shave the soap into small strips (or grate) and place in the pot with 5 cups of water. Bring the water just shy of a boil and stir until the soap is completely melted. When the soap is just about melted, pour 3 gallons of hot water into the 5-gallon container and let it sit until the soap in the pot is totally melted. Once all of the soap shavings are melted, pour the mixture into the 5-gallon container and stir.Once the soap and water are thoroughly stirred, add the ½ cup of washing soda and stir until dissolved. Once the washing soda is dissolved, pour in the cup of borax and stir again until dissolved

Now you've got a huge container of hot soapy looking water. Cover the container, place it somewhere out of the way and let it sit overnight. Once it's cooled it will gel. It will not gel uniformly so it will be lumpy and watery (mine had hardly any lumps and a good stir did the trick). It may not be very attractive, but it works. It's best find smaller storage containers for convenience.

Usage: ½ cup per laundry load is adequate to clean your clothes. This homemade laundry detergent works well in high efficiency washing machines since it is low sudsing.One word of caution, if using a high efficiency machines: Before pouring the lumpy gel into the detergent receptacle, stir it to break up the lumps. Better yet, place marbles into your containers and shake to mix before each use!