Homemade Laundry Detergent

For awhile I've thought about trying homemade laundry detergent. My only obstacle has been needing to go to more than one store to get the ingredients. So, yesterday in Publix, I was on the detergent aisle about to pick up some Tide, and I spotted all three needed ingredients: Borax, Washing Soda and Fels Naptha. Here is a picture of all three. I should have taken a photo before ripping into it all, but I was totally out of detergent, so I got busy: )

Here is my homemade laundry detergent. It took about 10 minutes and that time includes finding containers that would work.
Here is the recipe. You can add essence oils but it has a really fresh scent without. So, I'm not going to add any. Oh my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, who are professional laundry people, love this soap. I knew when I found out it passed their requirements that it must really be good: )

Homemade Laundry Soap
1/3 bar Fels Naptha .99 per bar
½ cup washing soda 2.99 per box
½ cup borax powder 3.99 per box
(It makes 2 gallons or 64 loads for regular washers or 128 loads for front loaders.)
Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. I used a medium sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into a larger sauce pan. It will need to hold 2 gallons. You could do this right in the 2 gallon container you use to store it. I used several smaller containers. Now add your soap mixture from the first sauce pan and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load for regular washers and ¼ cup per load for (HE)front loaders.
You can do the math on it. I think its about a half penny per load for front loaders. That sounds free to me compared to the cost of detergent. I’m not a tree hugger(even though I do love trees) but much better environmentally because lots less packaging waste.