Homemade Laundry Soap!
Have you seen the Lehman’s catalog or their website? I love Lehman’s! They started out supplying goods to the Amish in Ohio in 1955 and now they have a huge wonderland of goods available to everyone. They supply many tools for homesteaders. Since I am a Homestead Hopeful, I thought that a great thing I could easily implement into my own sacred routine would be their Homemade Laundry Soap Starter Set. So I ordered it! I am so pleased with it, that of course, I want to share the love with you, dear readers. The Set comes with everything you need to make your soap including great intructions, neatly packaged in the 4 gallon bucket you’ll use to store the soap.
Here are some snaps of the Sets at Lehman’s in Ohio, before mine came to me. What? Don’t you have the new Canon Teleport 2500 lens for your camera? Hee hee =)
And onto the soap making!
Step 1. Grate your soap
Step 2. Melt the soap in boiling water
It smells soooooo good and with all the steam and the wooden spoon and all the stirring, I couldn’t help but sing “Cheer up Charlie,” during this step.
Step 3. Add Borax and Washing Soda and keep stirring till dissolved
The Set even came with the measuring cup pictured, which you later measure the soap with when adding it to your wash water.
Step 4. Pour mixture into your 4 gallon bucket, add water and stir
Step 5. Let it set for about 24 hours and it will congeal into a liquid gel consistency
Step 6. Store and use
Doesn’t it look cozy in our laundry room cabinet? I’ve actually since moved it because I doubled the batch this time to make about 4 gallons. It is heavy! So I put it in a bigger cabinet where I don’t have to lift it out to get the lid off.
Being a Homestead Hopeful means I’m perpetually looking for simple ways to be wise with our money, honor the gift of the wonderful planet we live on and improve the effectivity of my work, sorta working toward self-sufficiency. Making my own laundry soap absolutely fits that bill and this Set provided the ease I needed to get started! I am gratified in every way, to have implemented it in my life.
Find all of the astonishing facts about how much money you save using this set and how well the soap cleans on the Lehman’s site.
Posted in Homestead Hopefuls, I made something, favorites, home life
May 8th, 2010 at 4:14 am
WOah! Had no idea you could make your own laundry soap!
May 10th, 2010 at 6:14 am
Hi, I am Lehman’s WebMaster. Wow, very very nice article and thank you. I hope you are still enjoying the soap. I am sending you some pictures of the packaged soap kit that I just took from the warehouse for your article. I hope we can help you again in the future.
May 11th, 2010 at 7:51 am
Thank you Greg, I am still enjoying the soap very much! Thanks for the pictures, too!
May 12th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Awesome! I just bought a similar kit locally and will be making my own soap soon. Can’t wait to see how well it works. 2 cents a load? I’ll take it! :)
May 12th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Interesting — how is this as far as sensitive skin? I would assume since it is the true basics of soap, borax and soda that it is okay. Just checking to determine if my thinking is likely accurate. And, Homestead Hopeful, I have the exact cannister set as you have on your counter which I thought was a bit of random serendipity.
May 13th, 2010 at 9:25 am
My girls and I are all prone to eczema, and we haven’t had a problem with it at all (we’ve been using it for about a month). I plan to use it for diapers, come September, I’m hopeful that rashes won’t be a problem =) I LOVE our cannister set! That’s very cool that you have it, too!
May 13th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Thanks for a great article! Nice work with the photos, writing, everything. Very professional! Could we use some of your photos on our website to show the product better?
May 13th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Thank you very much Mr. Lehman! You may definitely use my photos for the website. If you’d like, I could post a link to this page as my review of the product. I still have the review form in my inbox =)
July 19th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Great to learn to ways to be thrifty! About how much liquid product do you put in each washer load? Thanks for the info
July 19th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Half a cup does the trick!
July 20th, 2010 at 11:34 am
Quick question…do you think it would be possible to clean out and reuse one of the commercial laundry soap containers that actually dispenses the liquid soap or do you think it would be too think? If that worked, it would be ideal for me.
July 21st, 2010 at 6:43 am
Just to comment on the previous comment: I asked our “expert” on this, one of our staff members who regularly makes her own soap using these ingredients. Here is what she said:
I would NOT suggest putting the soap in plastic detergent bottles because once it sets up and is in gel form, it is nearly impossible to get back out….you can’t stir it up like when it is in a bucket. I discovered this by the trial and error method! lol One of my first batches, when still in the liquid form (before it set up) I poured it into a liquid detergent bottle, thinking that would make it easier! NOT!!! I had to end up cutting the bottle b/c there was no way to stir it up….it was just stuck in there! We live…..we learn…..isn’t that wonderful?
July 30th, 2010 at 9:14 am
I love using my own homemade laundry soap, I just use it in its powder form, I don’t make it into a liquid, I just make sure to grate the bar soap as fine as possible, and I run it though the food processor with the blade attachment. My hubby and I have lived 100% off grid since Dec 07 and love it! I have been making homemade laundry soap using equal parts of grated bar soap, borax and washing soda for years before moving off grid, it’s great, I love it, it makes my clothes so clean and they always smell so fresh. Thanks for the article! :)
July 30th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Thank you, your comment is inspiring!! I am actually planning to switch to the powder soap when my current batch of liquid is gone because I think it will work better with my steamwasher (not quite ready to go off the grid myself!). Thanks again, I’m gonna try your recipe =)
July 30th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
I’ve been using the dry form of this for a few months and my whole family loves it! My clothes are cleaner and we have no fear of rashes or skin problems caused by caustic chemicals used in commercial clothes detergent. Stains come out much easier without having to use “stain removers”. Oh, and saving money isn’t bad either!
July 30th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Awesome! I wonder if you’d share your recipe with us?
July 30th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
i would love the instructions for the dry form of this. i have resisted making the liquid form because of lack of storage but the dry from would be great. please also tell us how much of the powder you use per load.
PS does anyone know how this (powder or dry) works in a front loader)
Thanks!
July 30th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
One part grated bar soap
one part washing soda
one part borax
Mix together, use one-three tablespoons per load, it will not seem like enough, but it is more than enough. You need to get the bar soap ground down as finely as possible, I grate mine then run it though the food processor with the blade attachment. I grate up one bar of soap, measure it, then add equal parts of washing soda and borax. Omit the borax if your gray water goes out onto plants that you wish to keep, borax will kill plants, your laundry will still come out clean without the borax.
July 31st, 2010 at 8:13 am
Has anyone tried this soap in the new high efficiency washing machines? Regular soap produces too much suds and is typically not recommended for them because of the suds problem.
July 31st, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Jerry, I currently use the gel form in my HE front-loading steamwasher. It works fine, but I definitely contend with remaining odors and stains often. If the liquid detergent tray in my washer allowed me to use more liquid soap per load, I might have better luck. But my hunch is that the more concentrated dry form of the soap would simply work better. Thanks Wretha for the detailed recipe/instructions! I have read/heard around the internet that a lot of people are very satisfied using the dry form in the HE washing machines, and as Wretha pointed out, you only need 1 to 3 tablespoons per load! I will post a blog about how the dry soap works for me in my front-loading steamwasher in the future. Thanks so much for everyone’s questions and input!