DIY Laundry Soap

It has been almost a year since I have bought laundry soap. Around this time last year I used a recipe to make a liquid laundry soap from http://www.theblissfullycontentlife.org/2011/05/homemade-laundry-soap.html. The bill came out to be around $15 + tax to make. Obviously this is very cheap, much less than buying store bought soap and you know exactly what is in it! I saw no real difference in the clothes itself but everything always did come out clean. The thing I did notice is that the washer we use at our apartment is a front loader washer and has a bit of a musty, weird smell when I open the door to throw my load in and also when I take the wet clothes out. I noticed this since I moved in and when I used either store bought Tide soap or later my homemade soap my clean, dry clothes had no fresh scent. It seems to be a common problem after hearing from my mom who has talked to a few family friends who also have had that same smell problem. I looked at some online forums to see if others have had the same problem and it seems that it is very common and that many are unhappy with their front load washers (good to know fact for when we need to buy our own washer someday!). I heard my friend from back home was using a homemade powder soap for her front load washer so, I asked her for the recipe to give it a try. Unfortunately, I am not sure where she got the recipe so I am not able to give that person their proper credit. The powder soap recipe has a few more ingredients than the liquid soap and one ingredient in particular is a bit pricy (around $6 for a small and $11 for a full size container) so it is not as cheap to make as the liquid soap but, I am hoping it will fix my smell problem! My bill total came out to be around $35 plus tax. My friend (who is a family of 4) says it lasts her about 9 months and cleans their clothes well. I made the soap today and it is a little easier and takes a bit less time than the liquid recipe since you don't have to heat and dissolve the soap (btw the liquid soap is also very easy and fairly quick to make if you would rather go with a liquid soap). The only thing that took a bit of time was grating the 2 bars of soap since the grater I have has really small holes. So I am hoping this powder will last me at least 9 months which will be a GREAT savings and it was a fun DIY project!

Here are all the ingredients needed to make the laundry soap (6 total) excuse my Angel Soft toilet paper in the background haha!

This is after I mixed up all of the ingredients

I am going to use the little tub that the OxiClean came in and keep refilling it once it gets low. Handy right? I am glad I didn't buy a small container! OxiClean comes with this little scoop but I think I am going to use the little top from  Downy Unstoppables because I measured out how much I need per load and the top has a line perfect for measuring a scoop of soap for a normal size load.

Powder Laundry Soap Recipe:
76oz Borax (one box)
55 oz Arm and Hammer washing soda
4lbs baking soda
3lbs OxiClean (any variety will do)
2-3 containers of Downy Unstoppables scent booster beads (or Gain, other)
(My friend uses 2 full size containers but I bought 2 "try me size" small containers to see how strong it is, I can always add more. Right now it looks like there is enough)
2 bars of Zote soap, finely grated (or 3-4 Fels Naptha)!
You only need 2-3 Tbl per load

So let me know if you also are going to try this recipe also! I haven't started using it yet since I still have a little liquid soap left from my previous recipe. I probably will start next month! Thanks to Hannah my friend who passed this recipe on to me :)!!!