DIY laundry detergent

Ok so here I am jumping on the bandwagon! But let's see I am fully determined to get out of debt and reduce my costs here at home. One of the expenses that is just huge is laundry detergent. I wash a lot! I saw this on one of my fellow refashion co-op editor's blog and thought I would give it a try! It is a non-borax powdered detergent. Here is what you need...

1 box of biz boost/stain booster (in place of borax)
1 box washing soda
1 bar of dial soap (or another soap with no lotion added!)
cheese grater
food processor

all of the ingredients cost right under $10 total. I had a cheese grater and I borrowed Sonja's food processor.

Here's how to do it
1. grate your bar of soap with the cheese grater. This is the longest part, I did this while watching a show on tv, balancing on my ball trying to strengthen my core.

Towards the end your grater may look like this...

but you have nicely shredded soap.

2. Combine with biz and some of the washing soda in the food processor to further grate into a powder.

Running... oooooh ahhhhhh

Continue with processing the remainder of the ingredients. Done!

I had a small roasting pan worth of detergent! Holy cow!

This was the only thing I could find to hold it! Will look for a more permanent container for the future.

So here is the kicker you only need 3 tablespoons for an extra large load! Seriously! Scale down from there. I have tried it and my clothes smell fresh, have come out so clean and bright, you could not even tell it wasn't the expensive store brand stuff!

I think that I probably won't have to buy detergent for the rest of the year. Wahoo!!!

xoxoxoxo,
Lauren