Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've always wanted to make my own laundry detergent, but brewing water and soap over the stove didn't appeal to me. I've had my eye out for a dry recipe and came across one on pinterest. (ps- Don't go to pinterest, you will become addicted and end up spending all your free time there... not that I know from experience or anything.)

 What you need:

• 4 pound box of Arm & Hammer washing soda
• 4 pound box of baking soda
• 4 pound box of Borax laundry booster
• 1 small container of some type of oxyclean
• 3 bars of Fels-Naptha or Zote soap (I used 2 Fels and 1 Zote)

What you do:
Combine first 4 ingredients in a big bucket, mixing as you go.

Using a cheese grater, grate the soap into the bucket and mix well. I imagine a food processor would also grate the soap well. Doesn't the Fels-Naptha totally looks like cheese?!

Done! I put some detergent in an old clear cookie jar next to my washer. The scooper that came with the oxyclean holds about 2 tablespoons, that's how much soap I add to a load of clothes.

Because this laundry detergent doesn't make much in the way of suds it also works in a high efficiency machine. My mom, Nana, gave this detergent a try and thought it worked great in her HE machine.

I'd like to experiment with different kinds of soap like my favorite... Grandma's Lye Soap. I'll let you know how that goes.