Copied from another forum! Thanks Monkeymom on kiz!
I saw the Duggar girls make laundry soap, & Michelle rattled off the recipe, but I found it on The Today Show website. & if you have watched the Duggar's show on DiscoveryHealth or TLC, you will notice that all the kid's clothes, especially the boys, are clean. & yes, those boys do go outside & play & get dirty.
Jim Bob and Michelle: We use Fels-Naptha bar soap in the homemade soap recipes, but you can use Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zote bars. Don't use heavily perfumed soaps. We buy Fels-Naptha by the case from our local grocer or online. Washing soda and Borax can normally be found in the laundry or cleaning aisle. Recipe cost: approximately $2.
Homemade liquid laundry soap
Ingredients:
4 cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 cup washing soda
½ cup Borax
Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
Fill a five-gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (It will gel.)
Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per two gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons. Top-load machine: 5/8 cup per load (approximately 180 loads). Front-load machine: ¼ cup per load (approx. 640 loads).
Powdered laundry detergent
Ingredients:
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 cup washing soda
½ cup Borax
Grate soap or break into pieces and process in a food processor until powdered. Mix all ingredients. For light load, use one tablespoon. For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 tablespoons. Yields: three cups detergent (approximately 40 loads).
(On the show, the Duggar girls melted the shredded bar soap in a glass pan on the stove, stirring constantly. Then put the melted soap into a 5 gallon bucket of warm water, then added the washing soda & borax & stirred well, then got another 5 gallon bucket, divided the mixture between the 2 buckets, and nearly filled both buckets with water, stirred well, then put a lid on each bucket. I do not recall the amount used of this mixture to put in the washing machine for each load of clothes. I do recall Michelle saying that the recipe came from a home schooling conference that they had attended & that making this soap saves the family a ton of money.)
Inexpensive fabric softener recipes
Recipe No. 1: Add one cup white vinegar to rinse cycle. Works great. Removes residue and odors. Also helps to keep washing machine and hoses fresh and clean too.
Recipe No. 2:
1 container of name-brand fabric softener
4 inexpensive sponges, cut in half
Pour a whole container of softener into a five-gallon bucket. Fill empty softener container with water twice (two parts water to one part softener). Add sponges to softener/water mixture. When ready to use, wring out extra mixture from one sponge and add to the dryer as you would a dryer sheet
