I am going to tell you how I reduce, reuse, and recycle!

By the time I am finished, I hope you decide to do the same.

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

My name is Sara Kleinpeter, I am a mom of 3 boys. This makes

a total of 5 people in my house. I needed a way to save money, for my family.

One day, I thought to myself, “I bet I can make my own laundry detergent, instead of spending $15 every 2 weeks”.

With this thought, I went online and searched for “do it yourself liquid laundry detergent” and found this recipe on the

Dugger family website. Since I do not have 10 gallon jugs just lying around, I asked

my friends and family if I could have all of their empty milk jugs or plastic containers with lids. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. By all means, we can all do this.

In this slideshow, I will also tell you why it is important and rewarding to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Hello,

Borax ($2.99 at Wal-Mart or Target–in the laundry aisle )

Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (NOT Baking Soda–$2.99 at local grocery store in laundry aisle )

Fels-Naptha Soap Bar ($1.56 at local grocery store in laundry aisle )

5-gallon bucket with lid (around $4 at Home Depot, but I use a 5 gallon Rubbermaid tote that I paid 3.97)

10 gallon milk jugs (or other containers) that have been cleaned and rinsed (the concentrate will disperse more evenly if you go ahead and divide it up.

OPTIONAL: Essential Oil Drops for fragrance (not sure the price, because we didn't use any)

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to pick up:

 

*If you cannot find the Fels-Naptha Soap Bar, Look at your local grocery store IN THE LAUNDRY AISLE.

 

 

 

Grand Total: $11.54 for 640 loads (180 loads in a top-loading

machine). That’s a little more than 1 cent a load!

And the savings are even greater the next time you make this because the only thing you’ll have to buy is

the Fels-Naptha soap bar!

Directions on how to make your own laundry detergent

 

 Grate the entire bar of Fels-Naptha

Put soap in a pot with 4 cups of hot water. Stir continuously for about 10 minutes,

until completely melted and dissolved (it should be slightly foamy)

Fill a 5-gallon bucket half-full of hot water

Pour in the soap mixture. Add 1 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda and 1/2 cup Borax. Stir.

Fill the rest of the 5-gallon bucket with water until it is full. Stir again.

Cover and let it sit overnight.

When you open the top up the next day, it should have gelled and thickened slightly. Stir again.

Use a funnel to fill a clean laundry detergent container (or gallon-size milk jug) and fill it HALF way with the

soap mixture. Fill the other half with water and shake.

 

Once you’re ready to use the laundry soap, shake it in the container first. Then add:

-5/8 cups for a regular top-loading machine-1/4 cup for a front-loading (HE) machine

When making my own laundry detergent, I reduce the amount of money I have to spend on laundry detergent. By making my

own it only cost only pennies for the amount of laundry detergent I get with this recipe, compared to the name brands

you buy for $15 every two weeks. I reused my last laundry detergent bottle and milk jugs that I

have collected from family and friends. Last is recycling, being that I reused my laundry detergent

bottles and milk jugs, that I received from my family and friends, I am recycling the plastic that would have been

thrown away before. Not only am I saving money, but I am saving energy too.

You see Recycling one gallon plastic milk jug can save enough energy to run your clothes washing machine for over an hour – more than enough for a full load of clothes. Can you imagine what 10 gallons recycled over and over would save? Let me

show you just how much over just one year.

I wash about 2 loads of clothes a day. That is one gallon of laundry detergent every week

and a half, to two weeks. By recycling 10 gallon plastic jugs, I am saving

over 10 hours of energy in just 26 weeks. That is over 20 hours of energy in one year. This is just my family’s savings. Can you imagine if only 4 families saved that much in one year?

No, don’t imagine, Let me show you in a chart. The amount on the left is the amount of hours

saved by the gallons of milk jugs recycled. 

Energy saved by using homemade laundry detergent.

2 weeks 26 weeks 52 weeks0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

10 gallons20 gallons40 gallons

As you can see, if 4 people saved 10 gallons of milk jugs by making their own detergent, there would be over

800 hours of energy saved in one year.

Let’s talk about the cost. If it cost .55 cents per load, when you make your own laundry detergent. $11.54 for 640 loads

(180 loads in a top-loading machine), that would be .55 cents a load!

You would have to buy 6 gallons of store bought laundry detergent, just to get to 640 loads of clothes, that you can wash with the do it yourself detergent. This

would be $15 per every 2 weeks. Need a picture? No problem, here you go:

2 weeks 26 weeks 52 weeks$0

$100

$200

$300

$400

$500

$600

$700

$800

$900

Self made detergentStore bought de-tergent

Cost for both store bought and do it yourself detergent

As you can see, it cost $780 for one year worth of Store bought laundry detergent. And, only $364 for one

year worth of do it yourself detergent. This is a savings of $416

per year! 10 families would save$4,160. Let’s just imagine that

10,000 families made his or her laundry detergent. That would be a

total savings of $4,160,000.

Savings with making your own laundry detergent

2 weeks 26 weeks 52 weeks$0

$500

$1,000

$1,500

$2,000

$2,500

$3,000

$3,500

$4,000

$4,500

5 families10 families

To conclude, you are not only saving Energy but you are also saving money by making laundry

detergent yourself. The more families that make laundry detergent,

the more money that is saved, and the more money saved per year, the more money you can

put to bills. The more money you can put to bills, the more money that goes back to the Economy.

If people start making their own laundry detergent, this would be good for the Economy.

So I am asking you, let’s all reduce, reuse, and recycle, starting one step at a time. Homemade laundry detergent.

Now that you have watched my presentation, make sure you visit, www.castleink.com