Making your own laundry detergent is much easier than you would ever believe! Here are some things you will need:

-1 bar of soap (preferably Fels Naptha but you can use anything from Ivory to Zote or Pure & Natural)

-1 cup washing soda (not the same thing as baking soda! Can be found on laundry isle)

-1 cup Borax (found on laundry isle as well)

Now comes the fun part, you will need to take your full bar of soap and grate it into very small pieces. The Fels Natha brand is made for laundry and it smells very clean, it's my favorite. You can use a grater or whatever works best for you. I used a Ninja kitchen appliance after I grated mine to get it smaller. It just needs to be small enough pieces so they will dissolve. Next you will mix the grated bar of soap with the cup of washing soda and the cup of Borax. That's all there is to it! You will need to use 1 tablespoon for a full load but you can use up to 2 tablespoons for really dirty loads. 

It will amaze you at how cheap, easy, and effective this detergent is. Let me put the cost difference into perspective. Tide powder detergent averages out to $.21 per load and this homemade detergent costs about $.05 per load. They are essentially the same ingredients but theirs costs four times the amount than if you made your own. In addition, many new washing machines are energy efficient and say they require a special type is laundry detergent that is high efficiency. The difference between the high efficiency kinds and the normal kinds is simply the amount of suds the soap makes. This recipe is very low sudsing so it definitely qualifies! 

I hope you get to give it a try. Enjoy!