Baking Soda Laundry Detergent

My sister sent me a website that had several different homemade laundry detergents.  For the most part they all had the three basic ingredients (washing soda, borax and soap) but with a variation on the amount.  I saw two that caught my eye and I decided to try them. As of now I have only tried one of them so I'll share what I think and it then do another post about the other one.

Homemade Laundry Soap Detergent #8
Ingredients:
2 gallons Water (hot)
1 bar Soap (grated)
2 cups Baking soda (yes baking soda this time–not washing soda)

Directions
Melt grated soap in a saucepan with enough hot water to cover. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring frequently until melted.  In a large pail, pour 2 gallons hot water. Add melted mixture, stir well.  Then add the baking soda, stir well again.  Use 1/2 cup per full load, 1 cup per very soiled load.

I decided to half the recipe just  in case it didn't work (spoiler alert: I'm SO glad I did that) so I broke a Fels-Naptha bar in half, then broke that half into pieces and put it in my food processor.  On the slight chance that any of you remember that my husbands skin doesn't appreciate the Fels-Naptha bar, have no fear, due to his lack of desire to let his cloths be guinea pigs, he is now doing all of his own laundry.  It's a win win situation. 

This was my first time trying to melt Fels-Naptha in a pot and I couldn't believe how long it took. I can now appreciate the expression "I slaved over a hot stove all day!"

 

Once it was finally melted, I mixed all the ingredients together and let it cool.

The Verdict: NO!  It did absolutely nothing.  I decided to try and give it a second chance, so I ran the same load of laundry again and used 2 cups of this detergent.  Not only did it still not work, but the urine smell that was on my daughters clothes was now all over everything else.  Throwing my clothes on the ground and spraying them with a garden hose would be more effective then this.   I'm glad I halved it, that way I didn't feel to bad when I disposed of it.