What you need-
Arm and hammer washing (not baking!) soda, Borax (NOT boric acid!!), Purex crystals, Purex color safe bleach, Fels-naptha bar soap, a grater and a big tub.
Grate the bar soap. Get it as fine as you can. I have found that a food processor doesn't do the job well enough.
After that is grated, heres where it gets really complicated. Just dump everything together in the tub! Don't worry about the clumps in the powder, you will break those up.
Now get in there with your hands and mix it up! It helps to have a small helper :) After it is all smooth and mixed up, put it in your containers of choice. I save the Purex bottles, and use mason jars too. Use a heaping tablespoon per load. It won't foam up like commercial soaps, but I promise it is working!
Cost breakdown-
Purex color safe bleach 1.97
Purex crystals $4.76
Fels-naptha bar soap .97
Borax-$3.38
Arm and hammer washing soda $ 2.98
Total cost for about 6 months worth of soap (for a family of 4) = $14.06
For an entire year it only costs me about $30 in soap! Not too bad!
