After that great post on how to make your own laundry soap my wife wanted to make some so I headed out and started looking for everything I could find everything buy the washing soda only place I could find it was online and the shipping was a killer. I also tried to google how to make washing soda and found two way no one said if they worked and both sounded like they would not work. First one was just add boiling water to baking soda the other take baking soda place on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 to 8 hours at 450 deg's. As I said not sure if any of them would work.

I wasn't able to find it locally either; I tried every hardware store within a few miles, both major and small grocery and drug stores... most never heard of it.

I get it at our local supermarket.

I get it in 50 lbs sacks at the local pool/janitorial chemical store (the kind of place that sell floor machines and special purpose cleaners)  cost is between 12 and $20, I forget exactally.  Ask for Soda Ash or Sodium Carbonate.  They bring it out of the back, I don't know if they consider it a pool chemical or janitorial chemical.  

Couple of years ago, I had 100 lbs in my office (with the obligatory MSDS).  Safety guy pitches a fit becasue it it toxic.  But the MSDS shows it's LD50 (Lethal dose for 50% of subjects) to be somewwhere arround 8000 mg/kg- there is enough in there to kill 50 people.  My counter was the LD50 was between table salt and sugar (more toxic than one, less then the other), and the cafateria wasn't required to store their salt and sugar is a special hazmat building.

Krogers carries it here in michigan

I got mine at the local Food City––big Arm-n-Hammer yellow box.

Checked the following stores in the town I live:
Piggly Wiggly
Kroger
Alco

Where I drive thru:
WalMart
The Fresh Apple
Mayflower Foods

Where I work:
WalMart
Save A Lot
SaveUMore
Brookshires
BigLots

And countless hardware stores. Will look for other grocery stores next time I go to "The City"

I posted in the "wash your drawers thread" that it's available at Schnucks (high end grocer).

John

Can be found on ebay. Buy 10 for about 45$. Maybe the route I have to take.

If your local grocery store doesn't have it, ask the manager if he can order it.  They usually will at least order a small amount of an item and then if it sells they order more.  Tell him you will buy 3-5 boxes of it.  That will last you forever and may help in getting it ordered.

We used to buy the 180 load detergent from Sears and 3 boxes lasted me about 6 months. I get your point but we wash a lot of clothes.

If you are making your own detergent, 3-5 boxes will last a long time.  We have 4 young boys and we also do a lot of laundry.  Sometimes, I even have to help my wife with it.

Amazon.com has it.

I think I saw all of the necessary ingredients for the home laundry detergent at Home Depot in the "cleaning" section.

Do you have Publix in Texas?