Making Liquid Laundry Detergent

This idea certainly isn't my own, but I love it! It's so simple to do and saves a ton of money, plus it reduces waste and is more natural than mass produced detergents.

To do this you need:

Borax (approx $3.00)
Washing Soda (approx $3.00)
A bar of soap (I like Dr Bronners, which is more expensive at about $3.50. Fels Naptha is only $0.98 and also works great)
A 5 gallon bucket (or other large container)
4 gallons of water

 You'll need a new bar of soap each time, but you get several batches from the other ingredients, so it's definitely a money saver considering how much it makes!

To make it:

-Chop finely or grate you bar of soap  

-Combine soap with one gallon of water and "cook" over medium heat, stirring frequently until the soap is completely dissolved (this takes awhile)   

-While soap is dissolving, put 1.5 cups of both Borax and washing soda into your bucket

-Once soap is dissolved, pour it into your bucket and stir well

-Add 3 more gallons of water and stir again

That's it! You've now got a vat of liquid detergent. It'll be really runny at first, but set up to be gel-like eventually. 1/4-1/2 a cup is more than plenty to clean even large loads.    

Here's mine. I can only make half batches since I don't have space for a 5 gallon bucket.