How to make Homemade Laundry Detergent

Well, I am out of laundry soap, so I spent part of my afternoon making more and I decided what a great opportunity to share with my friends! I have been making this for the past 6 months or so and use it for all our laundry. The secret ingredient is soap nuts! They are all natural and fragrance free. Gentle for babies, great for allergie sufferers and strong enough to clean out heavy dirt. You can buy them online and don't be freaked out by the price. You get a lot of soap nuts and you don't have to use very much each time you make a batch. You can just throw the nuts into a muslin bag and then into your washer but I prefer to make a detergent out of mine, I feel like I get more bang for my buck that way! So here's how you do it:

Take a handful of soap nuts, about 10-15...

and throw them into a pot with about with about 4 cups of water. Bring the water to almost a boil, right before the water begins to boil pull off the stove and drop the temperature to low-med and return pot to stovetop and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes. The water will begin to reduce and turn a yellowish/tan color.

I like to add just a little fragrance, nothing major and still all natural. I add lavendar oil I made this summer and homemade vanilla extract. Both are super easy. For the lavendar oil you just need dried lavendar (make sure its dried completely or it can get moldy) use the flowers and leaves and compact it into a jar with a carrier oil ( I used grapeseed oil) and let it sit for a month and voila, lavendar oil! For the vanilla you just need a 1/2 of a vanilla bean for 4oz. of 80 proof vodka. The beauty about the vanilla extract is that you can keep replenishing it for up to 2 years! All you do is fill the bottle back up once it's halfway gone, give it a couple weeks and it will have it's full flavor back. Pretty cool huh?!

Once my soap is done, I strain out or spoon out the nuts and then pour the liquid into ice cube trays. (This recipe makes 1 ice cube tray, 16 loads)Since its all natural and made from plant material and water, I freeze it so I can keep it longer. And I don't have to worry about reusing my ice cube trays for ice because there's no chemicals, all natural and safe. Once my cubes are frozen I empty them into a ziplock freezer bag and store. You only need one cube for small to medium loads and two for large loads. I haven't found the perfect fabric softener but just read one about vinegar and orange zest? Don't know how I feel about that but anythings worth a shot, I'll keep you posted.

Enjoy and let me know if you have questions or suggestions!

Lovingly,

Shell and Sion