I was just mixing up a batch of laundry soap and thought I do a quick post about it. There are many recipes on the internet for homemade laundry detergent. They usually call for grated bar soap such as fels naptha, borax, and washing soda, some add oxyclean and or essential oils for fragrance. The main difference in my recipe is that I use homemade bar soap.

The bar soap that I make for laundry soap has only 3 ingredients. They are coconut oil, water and lye. Out of all of the oils used in soap making coconut oil is most known for it’s cleansing ability. This soap certainly could be used for bathing. My husband likes it but I personally find it to be a little drying. I am sure that is because of it’s cleaning power. I really like it for laundry detergent though. I make a liquid detergent dissolving 1/2 cup each – grated soap, borax, and washing soda in about 2 quarts of very hot water – not boiling. Once all of the ingredients are completely dissolved I add another two quarts of cooler water then I pour it in an old detergent jug. I always shake the jug before using it incase the ingredients have separated, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem at these proportions. This recipe cleans our clothes at least as well as any commercial detergent that I have used in the past, and there is no need for fabric softener, as our clothes come out of the dryer nice and soft.

For anyone thinking about making bar soap using coconut oil as the only oil I will give you some advice.  This recipe will make a very hard bar of soap and it hardens up very quickly. If you want this soap to end up a particular size or shape, mold it that way. Do not expect to cut this into nice looking bars once it has set up. Attempts to cut this soap after it has hardened will result in the soap cracking into any size or shapes it desires.