What you'll need:
1 cup Borax
1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar (Castille works as well)
1 5-gallon bucket
Essential oil of your choice for fragrance (optional)
Grate the entire bar of soap.
Boil 5 cups water in a pot, then lower the heat to a simmer. Add the grated soap to the water and stir until it's completely melted.
Add 3 gallons of hot water to your bucket.
Add the Borax and washing soda. Stir until all the powder is dissolved.
Add your melted soap to the bucket and stir well.
Add fragrance if you're going to at this point. 10-15 drops of essential oil is probably enough. I made 2 batches of laundry soap, adding Tangerine to one for clothes and adding Lavender and Peppermint to the other for washing sheets and towels.
Cover your bucket and set aside for 24 hours to thicken. Then stir again. The soap will probably have a gel surface when you go to stir it again, and that's normal. Try to break the gel into chunks or as little pieces as possible and mix it in well with the liquid.
Optional: You can fill used, clean, empty laundry soap bottles half full of the soap, and fill the other half up with water. Then tightly seal the lid and shake before each use. This will help your laundry soap go just that much farther, and you'll want to use this option if you own a high efficiency washer.
If you take your laundry soap straight from the bucket, use about 1/2 cup of soap each wash for a top-load washer. I haven't seen any recommendations for use with this recipe on a front-load/he washer.
If you go the route with more water, use about 5/8 cup for top-load washers and about 1/4 cup for front-load/he washers.
As always, if you have any input, comments, questions, etc, please leave me a comment!
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