DIY laundry soap - that actually works!

Last year, I looked online for a good recipe for homemade laundry soap and ended up with one I really enjoy. It works great, and it lasts my family of 4 about 5 - 6 months. No, really!

This is information pulled from a few other sites and a few tweaks that I've made as well.

Ingredients needed: (all of these items can be found in the laundry aisle)
1 box of Borax (76 oz)
1 box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (4 lb)
1 box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (55 oz)
1 tub of OxyClean (3 lb)
2 bars of pink Zote soap (14.1 oz)
2 containers of Purex Crystals (28 oz) (Optional - this is only for an extra scent boost)

This can be used with any laundry bar soap, but I prefer the pink Zote bars. Zote does make white soap flakes (which would eliminate a step), but from my understanding, the violet dye in the pink bars actually help keep your whites from fading and looking dingy.

Steps:

1. Grate & ground your bars of soap. I use a cheap cheese grater to make large soap "curls" and then I put it my old food processor to break it into even smaller pieces. I usually mix it with one large spoonful of the baking soda to keep the mix dry and from clumping up. This is the only time consuming step of the process, but it gets faster the more you do it. Also, you may see on some other websites a recommendation to dry out your bar soap in the microwave to make it instantly crumbly. Well, let me save you the trouble, it doesn't work and you will NOT get that smell out of your microwave.
2. Put all of the ingredients into a clean kitchen trash bag, and then in another one. Believe me, you'll be glad you doubled up if you accidentally poke a hole in it. Speaking from experience!
3. While holding the tops of the bags tightly, mix up the ingredients by pushing and pulling and flopping the bag around until it is well mixed.
4. Scoop it into your containers and enjoy your DIY laundry soap! I use the scoop from the OxyClean tub for measuring for each load. You'll only need to use up the second line.

Notes:

• I buy my soap bars a couple months in advance. I unwrap them and place them in my linen closest to dry out. This makes it a little easier when it comes time to grate them.
• I purchased two plastic 1 gallon canisters from Walmart for a couple dollars each. The mixture always fills up the two canisters and the OxyClean tub.