Since we are prayfully moving soon, to a small farm http://www.squirrelcreekfarm.com. I thought I would brush up on my green cleaning. I had used store bought natural cleaners around my house before, (when my oldest was a baby) but with the expense of having two kids, we started using which ever was cheaper!

In my search recently I found that they are now the thing to buy and are much, much more than what we paid previously. So I started reading the web and searching for recipe to make my own.  I have found that making my own cleaners are much cheaper than buying commercial cleaners that are septic safe, even cheaper than the ones that I have been buying that aren’t septic, environmentally safe, I have also found out that they are better for my families health too!

I have quite a list of recipes compiled and am going through each one and trying them out to see which recipe I like the best. The first one is a winner!

I had been using the Sam’s cheapo laundry detergent for some time. I have really been disappointed with it as our clothes are really dingy unless I add Clorox II to the load which defeats the purpose of saving money! I have also been trying to find something else that will save us money, but will not affect my youngest daughter’s eczema. It hasn’t been going well. I had came to the conclusion that I would be using the cheap stuff for the rest of the family and buying Dreft for my youngest and doing twice as many loads!

But I am happy to report that my first foray into making my own detergent has been a huge success!! With both the cost of the product, the cleanliness of my families clothes and my youngest daughters eczema!!

Here is the recipe:
12 Cups of Borax
12 Cups of Baking Soda (not washing soda)
1 1/2 bara of Ivory soap

Grate the Ivory Soap. Add all the ingredients to a large pail with a tight lid. I used our old Sam’s laundry detergent pail. Shake to mix. I use 2 – 3 tablespoons for each load. Followed by 1/4 cup white vinegar in the rinse cycle love how fresh, clean and soft my clothes are.

Here is the math, to prove the savings.

We bought the 4lb (approx 12 cups) boxes of baking soda $1.87 and borax $2.67 at Wal-mart. (I have found a larger bag of baking soda at Sam’s for $5.42, I think it is 12lbs). The Ivory soap was 3 bars for .87 cents, which I used 1 bar of equaling .29 cents. We spent $4.83 total to make 26 cups of detergent. I use 2 tablespoons a load which comes out to about .02 cents a load. The Sam’s brand that I had been using was .05 cents a load!