If you have a good source of old soap pieces, making your own laundry and/or washing-up soap is a good idea. We have lots of soap because we are in the business of making it. This is how we do it:
It is a good idea to grate your soap before you try and dissolve it in your pot of hot water…
Once that is all done, put it in a pot of water to boil…
And then store it in a bucket or container, depending how much you have made.
Now, if you are using old bits of commercial soap, you don’t really need to add anything else but if you are using super-fatted soap (soap makers know what this means), you might consider adding some more lye, to convert the extra fat into soap (which is what we do). I also like to add some washing soda and borax since farm clothes get exxxxtra dirty and the extra chemical action really helps. Once the soap has cooled, I also like to add some orange oil (you can get it cheap by the gallon in Belize…limonene is the alternative in other countries) to add a nice aroma to the soap.
This is my recipe for five gallons (19-20 litres):
- 3500-4000 grams of grated old soap
- enough water to make a total of 19-20L of soap.
- optional: 30-60 grams of extra lye if using superfatted soap.
- optional: 30-60 grams of washing soda (sodium carbonate).
- optional: 30-60 grams of borax
- optional: 200ml of raw orange oil (or limonene, which is cleaned up orange oil).
Boil the soap and water until all the soap shavings have dissolved, then add the optional lye and continue boiling for 10 minutes. Add the optional washing soda and boil for another 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the borax. Make sure everything is dissolved. Pour into a pigtail bucket with a lid (or whatever container you are going to use). Once it has cooled down a bit add the optional orange oil.
Use one cup for a load of washing and one quarter cup for washing dishes.