Making my own laundry detergent

So I've been wanting to try this for a while but A.) I've had apprehensions about whether it worked just as good as "the real stuff" and B.) do you know how hard it is to find Arm and Hammer Washing Soda in a small town? I finally had to order it online. FYI, it still amounted to way less money than actually shelling out $20 for another container of detergent.

A friend of mine made some and said it was super simple and easy and that it worked just a good as her other detergent. She pointed me at the Duggar Family Recipe and I figured that if this detergent works for a family of 20 something kids, then it's got to work for my little family of 4.

Duggar Recipe for Liquid Laundry Detergent

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir detergent and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

*Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent - It must be sodium carbonate!!

TIPS FOR LAUNDRY SOAP: We use Fels-Naptha bar soap in the homemade soap recipes, but you can use Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zote bars. Don't use heavily perfumed soaps. We buy Fels-Naptha by the case from our local grocer or online. Washing Soda and Borax can often be found on the laundry or cleaning aisle. Recipe cost approx. $2 per batch.

This was the most labor intensive part of the whole thing (and it wasn't even that hard). I happened to have Ivory soap in my cabinet, so I just used that.

Melting the soap took the most time (and that was maybe 5-7 minutes at the most).

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Trying to find the Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda was the biggest pain in the butt, until I figured out I could order it online for still relatively cheap.

Then I mixed them all together and VOILA! I guess we shall see tomorrow, it's supposed to thicken up. I've already got a few loads of laundry in the queue to test it out. Here's to squeezing a few more bucks out of the paycheck!