Homemade Laundry Soap

For about 6 months now we've talked about the idea of making our own homemade laundry soap. I researched and pondered, and decided OK! Well, fast forward, and I made it last night. A simple enough recipe all the ingredients and I was set.
I honestly don't' remember where I got the recipe from, but I will say that it was simple!

1 bar Fels Naptha Soap (grated)
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda

NOW, this is the part that wasn't clear, nor did I care for. It tells you to add 2 cups of water to the soap and melt it down. However, this doesn't work out as well as I'd hoped it would. You actually need upwards of like 6 cups of water to melt your soap down. Why? Well, if you're only using two cups, chances are you'll end up with a bubbly soapy sticky goo.

I added my Borax and Washing Soda to my 5 gallon bucket with hot water and stirred it until dissolved. After adding the soap mix to this I stirred and stirred. The hot water didn't get all the soap melted (remember the bubbly goo?), so I strained out the soap chunks, added water from the bucket and melted it down again and poured it back into the bucket.

Stirred and stirred some more, then I let it sit over night, covered. I broke up the gel and got my mixing beaters out to help break up the gel clumps, and added to detergent containers we'd purchased from the store. I'm unsure how they'll come out of the push spout (still kind of chunky).

I am super excited to try this on our clothes, and will be testing on our cloth diapers too! I added up approximately how much a 5 gallon bucket would cost, and it's about $1.50. A lot of sites say that's about 80 loads, but I added some more water to it once I got it into containers, so I'm hoping to get more than that (the containers claim there's 166 loads in each one).

REVIEW: Changing Diapers-The Hip Mom's Guide to Modern Cloth Diapering

 Being new to the cloth diapering world, I had been searching for a book that was comprehensive and to the point. I don't want to be confused in the end, and I really want to learn even more about cloth diapering. Let's face it, when you have a Facebook, and Twitter and you talk about cloth, you need to know your ins and outs. That's where this book comes in, and oh boy!

Here's just a tiny bit about Kelly Wels:

Kelly Wels is a leading cloth diaper expert and advocate who has a passion for helping parents make informed decisions when it comes to how they diaper their babies.

In November 2010, Kelly founded Kellywels.com, which she calls her "passion project." Her mission is to share her love for cloth diapers and advocate for diapering change. She says she believes that through education and knowledge, parents can be empowered to make more positive diapering choices. Kelly also is a green living promoter and social media marketer.

Kelly was previously known by her peers as the founder and owner of DiaperShops.com and KellysCloset.com, two popular online cloth diapering stores. In the summer of 2010, Kelly decided to turn her business over to new owners and pursue her advocacy passion full-time, without dealing with the day-to-day pressures of running a multi-million dollar business. (Biography from Kelly Wel's Amazon profile.)

Cloth diapering isn't rocket science, but it is a skill to learn. With Kelly's book, I was able to read quickly and thoroughly. It was to the point, easy to understand, and had lots of helpful tips and tricks! It is always nice to have a go to source in your hands!

Are you wondering what other think about certain cloth diapering topics! There are mom quotes all over the book to give you a real perspective on cloth diapering! As a mom who doesn't have a lot of other mommy friends that use cloth, this was insanely helpful!

There are so many great things about this book, it's really hard to pick just a few to tell you about! From washing tips, to detailed pictures of different cloth diaper systems, this book is truly a one stop to help your journey! Even if you are a grandparent who's grand-babies are in cloth, this book is such a wonderful know how for everyone! There isn't any lingo that's too difficult to understand, and Kelly doesn't use a whole lot of silly terms. 

You definitely won't go wrong with this book! This would make a great gift for the new to cloth mommy in your life!!

Connect with Kelly:

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