Homemade laundry detergent

I spent most of the day organizing the office, cleaning out old papers, and doing several chores around the house. I found this "recipe" a few years ago (I don't remember where, sorry!). To save a little money each month, I make my own laundry detergent. It's really easy and involves just three ingredients, ivory soap, borax, and baking soda. I double the original recipe so I don't have to make it as often.

Here's my recipe:

1 C baking soda
1 C Borax
2 bars Ivory soap, grated

I just grate the soap bars on the old cheese grater. It should look something like this:

Then, I mix all three ingredients together, usually by hand, until it looks like this:

Looks like what you buy in the store, doesn't it? I store my detergent in an old plastic container. Best of all, you only need 1 tsp. for a load of laundry.

The only trouble I've had with it is that it sometimes doesn't dissolve well when the water is really cold in the winter. I have to dissolve it in water before putting it in the washer. Or, you could just use warm water to wash your clothes!