Making Soap

Princess Flower has come to spend the night with us, and I had talked to her Mum (Aunt CC) about a special Science Project.

I decided to let the Caterpillars and Princess Flower help me make our own homemade laundry detergent.  I found the recipe online and it seemed pretty simple.  After doing it - I can tell you - if this works, it was so easy that I'll never buy laundry detergent again.

The recipe is easy: 1 bar of soap (I used Ivory), 2 cups Baking Soda, 2 gallons of water, plus 12-15 drops of essential oil (optional)

First, the kids had to shred the soap.

I will be purchasing a cheap grater just for this purpose, assuming it works.

Then, we placed the soap in a pot and covered it with a bit of water.  The heat is suppose to melt the soap.  The directions say this will take a while, but anyone who uses Ivory knows - it basically melts in ANY water, so it didn't take very long at all.

After that, the kids took turns putting in the rest of the water and the baking soda.

To store the laundry detergent, I am using large Cat Litter containers.  These are easy to clean and are unscented, so they won't affect the detergent.

Plus, this way I was able to let the kids decorate the containers (so I could tell them apart, Princess Flower's Mum - Aunt CC - requested a different scent).  I wrote the directions on the side.

I mean, where else can you get laundry detergent decorated with a laser battle?  That, my friends, is truly unique! 

The cost is amazing -  it cost me $1.06 to make the entire container ($2.13 between us).  That's less than $0.02 per load.  Purex (for HE washers) cost me $0.18 per load.  AND this took less than 15 minutes of my time.  I did scent the detergent, but only because I had essential oils in the house (I won them in a raffle basket from Whole Foods).  It smelled just fine without the oils, but it was a nice touch to add lavender to mine and lemon citrus to Aunt CC's.

I'll post an update as soon as I've done a load of clothes.

~Lone Butterfly  )i(