Take one quart water in a pan and heat on low heat, add grated Fels-Naptha soap and stir constantly until completely melted.

Add the Washing soda and borax to 1 5-gallon bucket and add hot water (2 gallons) mix until powders are dissolved.

After water and Fels-Naptha mixture is ready, add to this bucket and stir well. Then add (2 and 3/4 more gallons water and stir well. Let sit over night.

Then the next day split this mix into half, one half staying in the current bucket the other going in the 2nd bucket. Add 2 and 1/2 gallons hot water to each and stir well. Use 5/8 cup per wash load. Add 1 cup white vinegar to whites, towels and underwear. You can add 2-3 drops of essential oil to each load, for different scent on each load, or you can add 15-20 drops to each refilled liquid bottle, or 40-45 to each bucket full. This can be adjusted to your own liking.

I keep an old liquid laundry detergent bottle in the laundry room and just fill it as needed. It’s a large Gain bottle, I get to fill it about 8 times per each 5 gallon bucket. Cost per load is about $0.03.

If you have trouble finding any of these items in your local stores, try soapsgonebuy.com They sell all of these items and ship direct to your door.

My clothes are cleaner than ever, no smells at all. And much much less lint in the dryer as well.

As for the dryer lint trap, if you have ever used commercial dryer sheets, wash your filter monthly. You will find the first time you wash it that the water will not flow easily through it. An old tooth brush works great to clean these small holes that get clogged up by commercial dryer sheets. This clogging causes problems with dryer parts, increases drying time and can be a fire hazard.

As for “dryer sheets” Get a pack of cheap small sponges at the dollar store (usually 6 in a pack for $1). Cut each one in half and drop it in a bucket. If you purchase the regular strength liquid fabric softner not the ultra or concentrated stuff, dilute it by dumping the bottle into a bucket, then fill the bottle 3 times more with tap water and add to that bucket. Stir well, Then sqweeze out 1/2 sponge and throw it in the dryer with your load of clothes. Works great! If you do purchase the concentrated stuff, make sure to pay attention to how concentrated it is. If it’s 2 times the concentration, then dilute to unconcentrated first, then 3x’s dilution over that.

I hope these tips will help someone else out as much as they have helped me out. I have cut down on the cost of detergent, the cost of dryer sheets, the amount of lint from my clothes, which means the clothes last longer, and stay new looking longer with less shrinkage as well.