Homemade Laundry Detergent

Yep. I made homemade laundry detergent.  I had been wanting to make some for a while, but I was too nervous about how it would turn out.  I got kind of sick of trying to always find a coupon or deal for store bought laundry detergent, so I decided when my massive supply of Tide ran out, I would try my hand at making some detergent.

I had bookmarked The Simple Dollar's post about this years ago, because it's always been something that has intrigued me. Not only is it less waste for the environment, it's a TON cheaper!  I pretty much just followed Trent's step-by-step instructions, except I couldn't find any Washing Soda (well, they didn't have it at Target), so I made my own following this tutorial.

All in all it came out really well!  I was a little nervous at first, because it never seemed very "soapy" when I would put it in the washing machine, but everything has come out clean and smelling fresh. I do think I will use two bars of soap instead of one next time. The only down side to homemade detergent (if you want to call it a downside) is that we seem to go through it very quickly.  We use about 1 cup per load (which is recommended) but when comparing it to regular detergent, we empty the bottle a lot faster!