Simple homemade laundry detergent

Well after the switch to homemade and natural fabric softener it only made sense to stop wasting money and make my own laundry soap too. So I started searching online and found that every single recipe had the same main ingredients...

1) a bar of soap
2) 1 cup of borax
3) 1 cup of washing soda

Some recipes also call for essential oils, water, glycerin and/or downy.
Some say fels naptha, ivory, zote or homemade for the bar of soap.

Here is what I do from a mix of a lot of different sites and a little of my own:

You will need...

1)1 bar of Jordan Essentials Lavendar and Eucalyptus scent soap...this has been discontinued from their fall catalog, so for my next batch I will use their unscented pure glycerin soap with their lavendar essential oil. (I am a consultant with Jordan Essentials and it is the only products I buy that I dont make myself. I trust the brand to be safe for my family and I know everything that is in it.) I can't say the same for the other soaps suggested. PLUS this saves me the step of adding glycerin.

2) 1 cup borax

3) 1 cup arm and hammer washing soda

4) 3 gallons of water

5) funnel

6) long spoon

7) 3x 1-gallon jugs (these could be old laundry detergent bottles or milk jugs or cute store bought gallon jugs or my favorite empty gallon vinegar bottles...because lets face it I use a lot of vinegar for household cleaning and have a lot of extra jugs)

8) large pot that holds at least 10 cups of water

I do not add downy for obvious reasons...I'm going all natural and INEXPENSIVE...seems silly to "make my own" and still buy brand name as an ingredient, right?

So here is the process I do...

Grated up the bar of soap with a cheese grater...my soap is very creamy so it doesn't get powdery like some recipes describe. That is fine...you are going to melt it in water anyway. Once it is grated you put it in 6 cups of boiling water in a large pot on the stove. Boil on a low simmer for 15 minutes so that it is blended well. Remove from heat and add the borax and washing soda. Stir 10 minutes...make sure u don't feel anymore grittyness on the bottom of the pot. Pour two cups of soap mix into each gallon jug...if you choose to you can use half gallon jugs since they are more manageable.  Just use 1 cup per each 1/2 gallon. Fill the rest of the jug with water and allow to rest 4 hours. After four hours shake very well to remix everything and let sit 20 more hours. Its that easy. If you go a while between loads you may find you need to shake it up a bit sometimes so that it flows out like a thick laundry soap. It should not be chunky or watery.

For a different scent I recommend using Jordan Essentials orange essential oil.