Pinspiration: DIY laundry detergent

Anyone who has had a conversation with me recently knows how much I love Pinterest.

In fact, I often start my sentences this way: "On Pinterest I saw......"

But I don't just pin things....well, most of the time I do.  But hey! I've actually tried out several of the things I've pinned, be it recipes, household projects and outfit ideas.

One of such is homemade laundry detergent.

Now there are several out there, but I tried this one:

DIY Laundry Detergent

If you don't want to follow the link, the ingredients are as follows:

3 bars Fels Naptha Soap (grated)
1 three lb 7 oz box Washing Soda
1 four lb box Baking Soda
1 four lb 12 oz box Borax
3.5 lbs Oxi Clean (or the store brand equivalent)

Then you simply grate the bars of soap with a cheese grater (it actually grates fairly easy and looks like cheddar cheese....so don't get confused and sample any while grating.....) and mix the ingredients together.  I did mine in layers (add roughly 1/3 of each ingredient then stirring with a wood spooning, then repeat 3 times )in an old laundry detergent box. Then you're ready to go!



This looks like a box of Kitty Litter...but it's not!



I found all of these ingredients, side by side at my local grocery store.  For close to $18 dollars and in 15 minutes, I was able to make the laundry detergent. 

Now the beauty of the "supposed" DIY detergent is that A) it is said that only 1-2 tablespoons of detergent is needed.  As a result, B) it should last me quite awhile (it is estimated by the blog where this recipe came from to last about 8-9 months).  It's also nice that it's not too full of crazy perfumes that my skin abhors.

I've used it several times already, (one load from camping) and my clothes have come out looking and smelling clean and they even feel a bit softer!

I'm pretty pleased so far and will let you know just how long it really lasts me and what I still think of it down the road.