Laundry Soap

For about a year now I have been making my own laundry soap as opposed to buying the more expensive, chemical free alternatives on the shelf. Homemade laundry soap is very easy and much cheaper than buying conventional products. More importantly, it is so much better for the environment and your skin (which absorbs everything from the products you lather on to the chemicals left in the clothes and linens that you come into contact with). I have found countless "recipes" for both liquid and powder and I have come to make my soap with the following ingredients: 

• Castile Soap-I use the baby mild version bc it's the only scent-free castile bar soap I can find. I have used lavender before but husband wasn't keen on that scent on his clothes (I for one love it)! Can't go wrong with baby mild. I usually buy this at Whole Foods and I think it sells for around $4 or $5. 
• Washing Soda-not to be confused with baking soda. This ingredient gave me a challenge when I first started on my laundry soap journey. I could not find it ANYWHERE. I eventually resorted to ordering it on Amazon about 4 or 5 times before I found out that Walmart carries it. I don't shop at Walmart, in fact I can count on ONE hand how many times I've stepped in to one. Anyways, I was paying almost $8 a box to order it online (the shipping is a little high bc it's a heavy box) and Walmart sells it for just over $3. So months ago I went and bought 5 boxes and still have 3 left. 
• Borax-I usually buy this at Target but I've seen it at Whole Foods, Home Depot, etc. It's not difficult to find and a box is about $3 or so. 

Grate the bar of soap using your cheese grater. From there, run it through your food processor or an electric chopper (I am obsessed with my mini-chopper by Cuisinart) to get a more fine, powdery consistency. Combine the soap with about 4 or 5 cups each of washing soda and borax. In the past, I have gone so far as to shake all of the ingredients through a fine strainer to get a really fine powder but when I'm feeling lazy, I just throw all of the ingredients in a large bowl or a ziploc bag and manually mix them together, trying to work out any clumps in the powder ingredients.  

I store laundry soap in a mason jar in my laundry area (keeping the rest on a ziploc bag) and with an old baby formula scoop, I use 2 scoops per full load. I haven't had any problems with this formula and our clothes always come out clean and residue free. I also do not use any fabric softener or dryer sheets. Once you get used to not using them, you wonder why you ever bothered.