My Adventure in Making Laundry Soap

Note: This is not a 'how-to', just the story of my adventure. And oh what an adventure it was...

In an attempt to be frugal and prolong staying at home with my first born, I decided to make my own laundry soap. I got a recipe from my sister who had recently made some and off to the store I went with my list in hand. I slaved over my cheese grater, shaving bar after bar of soap, and mixed up an enormous batch of powdered detergent.

So excited to try it out, I dumped a scoop in the washer with my clothes and let it do it's thing. When the wash stopped I switched the clothes over and as I did I could hear the little bits of soap hit the floor. FAIL. It didn't break down at all in the wash! I tend to wash most everything in cold water, as it's cost effective so I figured that was the issue. I washed the next load in warm water, hoping it would be better, but it was only slightly so. I grabbed my trusty store bought soap and commenced laundering as usual.

My lovely jar of soap sat perched on the shelf above the washer (for a the better part of a year), only being used when we would run out of detergent. Finally I decided I could not let all this soap go to waste and I made myself use it. The only way I could was to place a scoop of it in a jar, fill it with hot water and run around the house like a crazy person shaking it until it had somewhat dissolved, and then add it to the wash.

I had thought about trying to make it into liquid soap but hadn't tried. Then I stumbled upon this idea on pintrest. Whipped soap?! Genius! How easy would this break down in the wash?! I glanced at the ingredients and the how to and figured I'd give it a go. I couldn't find the original recipe I used, but I remembered the fels naptha soap, washing soda, and borax (which were the same as in the new recipe) so I went to work sifting the soap shavings out of the rest of the powder. (SUCH A PAIN! But I didn't want to waste all these ingredients!)

After hours of prepping and fussing children to get my kitchen kid-free and ready, I began to melt the soap. Hello progress! I mixed the first batch (I had to do three because I made soap for a year the first time. Hindsight, I probably should have started small and decided if I even liked it!) and poured it into my jars. (Something to keep in mind: heat your jars in hot water before you try to fill them with your hot soap!) Three batches and an eternity later, my jars sat cooling on the counter.

I cleaned up the first mess and allowed the jars to cool as directed. Once they were cooled I got out the trusty blender. (The best thing I learned from the whipped soap post was a mason jar fits onto the blender. This is going to come in so handy sometime!) I whipped the soap as directed but my jars still weren't full so I decided to combine them. I tightened the lids on, cleaned up the mess and sent out the all important picture message to my sister showing off my hard work.

Later that night, after the babies were in bed and my husband and I had just finished eating dinner, I decided to show off my days labor. As I went to pick up a jar my husband noted that the lid was bulging. As I went to pick it up there was a loud "POP" followed by soap flying everywhere. I was on the floor, laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face. It scared me so much I was doing the nervous laughter thing that he never seems to know how to handle.

Being the good husband that he is, we went jar by jar releasing the lids and scooping out some of the soap, leaving the 1 1/2" space at the top that was initially there. Then clean up began, and oh what a mess there was. I would wipe the counter clean and go rinse the wash cloth in the sink only to turn around and see the counter top a chalky white again. Once everything was fianlly free of soap I neatly lined my jars up along the counter and labeled each jar. Success.

The next morning I fixed breakfast and sat down to eat. As I did I noticed there was one of the jars that appeared to be leaking down the side. I went to pick it up and look at it and as I touched it, the lid shot off and the entire kitchen wall was covered in soap. As I began to look at the jars many of the lids were bugling. REALLY?? Once again I started the process of releasing each lid and scooping out the soap, this time leaving 2 1/2" space at the top. Once again I cleaned and re cleaned the kitchen.

Determined to figure out why this was happening I googled the issue. Surprisingly nothing came up. (Further proof that people are merely pinning and not trying things...geez people, where were you on this one?) The only thing even mentioned was that if you added oxy clean it could happen. I know I didn't use oxy clean, but what did I use? I looked again for the original recipe to no avail. I did find this one which was similar. Then I remembered.... I put baking soda in it. Oops! So now I'm left with exploding laundry soap. An entire years worth. Stored in jars in a tightly sealed Rubbermaid tote. Hope it cleans well!

If I ever do have to make this again I'm defiantly going with the Whipped Laundry Soap recipe. I love that it's super concentrated so it can take up little space and it's very cost effective! Plus, apparently if I make it correctly and don't just wing it, it won't explode!