Homemade laundry detergent

I start a new adventure here at the Pin There, Tired That blog!! This blog was started to try different Pinterest things and see whether they pass or fail... I have drooling over the ides of making my own homemade laundry soap. I have read SEVERAL blogs, and finally found one to follow (One good thing By: Jillee. http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2011/08/homemade-laundry-soap-revisited.html). I got up the nerve to go and purchase the items needed for making this item. All I purchased was 1 box of Borax (cost $3.97, at my local Walmart), 1 box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda ($3.24 at my local Walmart), and lastly a 2 pack of Dial gold soap ($0.97 again at my local Walmart). 

To start with I took 1 bar of Dial soap and grated it with my old grater (personally donated, by me, to the soap cause) and then....

Put in 8 cups of hot water and stirred to mix. Put the burner on LOW to help the soap along and dissolve in the water...

Once all the soap has dissolved into the water the next step is to add in 1 cup each of Borax and Washing soda...

As you can see it gets foamy... Or at least mine did after adding the "dry" ingredients... And once the mix started boiling it really gets foamy!!... I removed from the heat as soon as the boil got rolling.. AKA almost foaming over. I let it cool for about 5 minutes.. Then laddle by laddle, through the funnel I tried to divide the mix equally between 2 gallon containers...

The before: ^ adding of water....

The after.. ^ Now time to test in the laundry :)

 After letting my stuff sit for about thirty minutes, and not using it YET..mine became "chunky", I believe it is the foam that was on top that became solid and mixed in. If so then the next time I will scoop the foam off (lessons learned) .. Now its time to put it to the test and run a load of clothes to try it out... But first, I am adding 10 drops of lavender oil in... 

 Load of bed sheets are washing away, smell test later.. Look for the PS...

<3 Tina

P.S. Although my detergent continued to stay lumpy it did seperate too! I still find my clothes just as clean if not cleaner and the smell is way better then store bought detergent. I just shake my mix up before each use. Using the "measuring" lid from an old detergent container, I use the same amount in my same size loads! Maybe next time I will stir more consistantly to avoid lumps?! Hope you try this yourself. IF you do please leave a comment to how yours turned out!