If you had told me five years ago that I would be making my own laundry detergent, I would have laughed at you and then asked what you were smoking. I mean, making your own laundry detergent – isn’t that just for hippies and peacenik wannabees?
Well. As it turns out – no. A while ago, I started investigating better/cheaper/more organic ways of cleaning. (Unfortunately, I still haven’t found the magic genie in a bottle that will clean my house while I sleep. If you find that, would you let me know?) One of the first things I searched for was laundry detergent. Last year I purchased several bottles of laundry detergent from Costco. While Costco is one of the less expensive places to purchase it, the cost was still pretty large considering it’s just a bottle of soap.
I remembered watching the Duggar family (of 18 Kids & Counting fame) make their own laundry soap. I was certain that would not be the method that worked for me. Because no matter how much I want to save money or improve the chore of doing laundry – I knew that having to cook my laundry soap would immediately turn it into drudgery for me.
Ergo, google to the rescue. If you search for “homemade laundry detergent” you’ll get a slew of sites with multiple recipes.
I came across one that looked simple enough for me, and I didn’t have to cook it (or stir it before every use.)
Laundry Detergent
- 2 cups grated bar soap (like Fels-Naptha, Zote, Ivory, or Castille soap)
- 1 cup borax
- 1 cup washing soda
Put all of the ingredients into a air-tight container and stir together. Use 1-2 tablespoons per load of laundry. This recipe makes enough for 32-64 loads of laundry.
Things I’ve learned since then:
Grating soap – you can do it by hand, but it might take forever and you might lose a knuckle if you are not careful. If you use a food processor to grate, you end up with pretty curls so you’ll want to use the chopping blade after grating to help make the soap pieces smaller.
If your air-tight container is large enough, you can double or triple the recipe.
If you don’t like the way the soap smells, don’t use it in the laundry detergent. Personally, I hate don’t like Zote. It won’t be going into my detergent – ever.
If you love the way a soap smells, you’ll love smelling your clean laundry.
If your husband is forever bringing home fancy little bars of soap from hotels across the country, you can use them in your laundry detergent and clear a space on the shelf in the closet. What a deal!
If your husband watches silly youtube videos of what happens to Ivory soap when it is put in the microwave and then has to try it all by himself. The end result substitutes quite well for grated soap, once it cools and dries.
Making your own laundry detergent is frugal-minded. Last October, I bought the original supplies. Borax was about $2.50, Washing soda was about $3.00, a 10-pack of Ivory was on sale for $2.50 – which makes the total about $8.00. I’ve lost count how many batches of detergent I have made from these supplies. I just recently ran out of washing soda. So $8.00 worth of materials has lasted from October to the end of July. That’s not bad – considering I know I would have used at least 2 $20 containers of Costco detergent in that same time frame.
Finally, I’ve learned that there is a certain satisfaction that comes from making a product that I once thought could only be purchased.
That looks doable – thanks for sharing!
I recently started making my own laundry soap, too! Your note about fragrance is so true! I’ve had a hard time finding a bar soap that I like the scent of. I scrapped the first batch because the smell was overwhelmingly bad. I got another kind of soap, but it’s not much better. I’m still on the lookout for decent smelling soap.
One note that I’d like to add: If you live in an area with really hard water, you need to up the amount of borax and washing soda. Even up to 2 cups of each per cup of soap. Its’ something you can experiment with and make adjustments as needed.
Rachel, I didn’t know that about hard water. I wonder if I should “up” my borax and washing soda. We’re known to have hard water, but I feel like our clothes are getting clean. :\ Thanks for stopping by!
Let me know if you try it, Jane! Good luck!