Has anyone here ever tried making their own laundry detergent? I saw it on TLC recently, went to the Web, and found pages of entries on it. They all come down to the same "recipe": Fels-Naptha washing soap, Borax, and washing soda (not baking soda).

Here is a blog tutorial about it: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/04/09/making-your-own-laundry-detergent-a-detailed-visual-guide/ He uses regular bath soap, but most other entries prefer the Fels-Naptha. It's good to know that bath soap will work in a pinch though.

I had no problem finding the ingredients (I live in a good-sized city), made up my first batch last night, and have the first load in the wash now. By all accounts, it seems to work reasonably well. Besides that, it's incredibly cheap. I only made up 2 gallons, because I don't have a large family, and didn't think I could lug around a 5 gallon bucket full of liquid. I scooped some out into one of my kazillion clean, empty, juice bottles to keep by the washer.

I'm thinking in terms of long-term storage. Some bars of soap and a couple of boxes of the borax and soda won't take up much room, and makes many, many gallons of detergent - a much better option than trying to store bulky bottles or boxes of laundry soap. The no-suds formula is a bonus too, especially if you are using the bathtub or 5-gallon bucket and a plunger to wash clothes in an emergency situation.