Household Recipes: Homemade Laundry Detergent
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I am a hardcore couponer.* My kids are even in on it. Whenever we go to the grocery store together they both want to know ahead of time “Do we get any coupons?”. I usually pick out a coupon I had planned on using (for a kid friendly item to make it more fun) and give one to each of them. Their job then is to find the item or items in the grocery store and put them in the buggy. They also get to put them on the belt and hand over their coupons when time comes to pay. Then we talk about how much money they saved that day by using them and I’ll usually go through a drive through for some sort of treat and explain to them how we got that “free” with the money we saved.
Consequently, Katy’s favorite thing to do is get my coupons out of the printer whenever I print them off from websites and such. As soon as she hears that printer going she hollers out “Ma! Can I get the coupons out for you?” and here she’ll come a running with pieces of paper, proud as a peacock. Hint: You can print out coupons directly from SouthernPlate.com by using the Coupons widget about middle ways down in the right sidebar!
One of the things that drives me half mad is the price of laundry detergent. This is one item which is absolutely necessary in your household but so seldom goes on sale. To make matters worse, Katy has had some sensitivity issues to detergent in the past (she broke out in hives when I tried out a lavender scented one and on one other occasion when I tried another detergent) so I am limited to which ones I can purchase.
A while back, I came across a Tipnut.com post on homemade laundry detergent. Now my initial thought was not to replace our laundry detergent but rather to simply know how to make my own in a pinch, if I ever had the need. I just love being able to do things like this on my own, must have been all those episodes of MacGyver when I was younger. I was pretty surprised to find that not only did it clean better than the high dollar brands but it also softened our clothes (I no longer use fabric softener) and made everything even smell fresher than the brand I had been using.
It has been requested by all members of my household (including the youngest, who thinks grating soap is just the coolest thing ever) that I only use this detergent from now on. We’ve been using it for a few months now and I’m totally won over. Of course, they love it for the smell and feel of our clothes, I love it for how great it works and the fact that it only costs me about eight cents per load of laundry now!
In my mind, the commercial versions can’t come close to this.
Tipnut has an extensive list of laundry detergent recipes on her site, including several for liquid detergent. She also has a great FAQ section just for laundry detergent questions! I considered the liquid detergent recipes for all of thirty seconds and went straight with the powder because it suits my commitment to keep things as low maintenance and simple as possible.
This is only my second batch that I’ve made up. It seemed to last forever so this last time I actually measured out how many loads were in each batch so I could give you an accurate figure. No wonder it lasted forever, I had made enough for 160 loads!
Today I’m bringing you the recipe I use which I found on Tipnut.com. After viewing this tutorial, hop on over there and check out her other recipes for detergent to find the one that works best for you. This one is the hands down winner at my house!
You’ll need:
- Laundry Soap (Fels Naptha or Zote are the ones I have used. You can also use: Sunlight Bar Soap, Kirk’s Hardwater Castile, or even Ivory)
- Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)
- Borax
Note: You’re not likely to find all of these things in one store. I usually have to make trips to at least two different stores to get them. One store will have the Borax but put it beside a huge box of Baking Soda instead of washing soda and then another will have the soap. Just have fun shopping around for what you like but be sure you remember where you got everything! I am going to show you a recipe for detergent to make about eighty loads worth but I recommend you get four bars of soap and go ahead and make 160 loads worth because there is enough Borax and Washing Soda in one box to do that much. This will give you the absolute best savings!
The only real work involved is grating your soap. I use a cheese grater for this. I really want to use my food processor but I’m worried about hard soap damaging or dulling my blades so cheese grater it is!
Get your soap, a dishpan or large bowl, and grater and go find something good on TV.
If you have access to one of the first few seasons of Mcleod’s Daughter’s, that’d be my pick.
*I get about three cups of soap shavings from each bar. Measurements will vary according to the size of your bar soap and how finely it is ground.
We’re grating this kind of fine so it melts easier in the water.
If you like, you can run the shavings through the food processor when you are done to make it finer but this works just fine for me.
Measure out your soap grounds in a large mixing bowl. This is where the recipe gets easy.
However many cups of soap shavings you have, half that to know the number of cups of Washing Soda and Borax to put in.
So for six cups of soap shavings, use three cups of borax and three cups of washing soda!
Measure out Washing Soda
And borax..
Stir all of that up!
You’ll have to stir a bit each time you scoop some out to get a good ratio of soap shavings to powder but that’s no big deal.
I store mine in a little flip top container and leave an 1/8th of a cup measuring cup in there to measure it out. Can you believe this only takes two tablespoons per load? Seriously! I put this to the test, too. I’ve figure out that two tablespoons is pretty close to 1/8th of a cup so that is the measurement I use now.
The main difference you will notice between this and store bought detergents is that this detergent doesn’t suds up as commercial ones do. Don’t let that deter you! Once you pull out your first load of clean, fresh smelling, naturally soft and fluffy laundry, that only cost YOU eight cents to clean, you’ll be hooked.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
*This was based off of Tipnut.com’s recipe #4, I just altered the amounts
- 4 Bars Laundry Soap (to yield 12 cups of soap shavings)
- 6 Cups Borax (this is roughly one box)
- 6 Cups Washing powders (this is roughly one box)
Grate soap using cheese grater. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Place in sealed container and measure out two tablespoons for each load.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Smaller Batch Recipe
- 2 Cups Laundry Soap Shavings (you can get this easily from one bar)
- 1 Cup Borax
- 1 Cup Washing Soda
*Follow Instructions For Above Recipe
Soaps you can use: Fels Naptha, Zote, Sunlight Bar Soap, Kirk’s Hardwater Castile, or Ivory
*For great coupon strategies and advice, visit www.southernsavers.com.
“You can complain because the roses have thorns, or you can
rejoice because the thorns have roses.”
To submit your positive or uplifting quote, please click here.
Wow, I think I may have to give this a try… It will take me months to find all the ingrediants, but that’s ok, I still have most of my new bottle of All.
I don’t know where you live. I live in Washington state and I’ve found all 3 at both Fred Meyer and Win Co. For those who don’t have these stores near you, Fred Meyer is owned by Kroger. So if you have a Kroger near by try looking there.
Morning Christy…
Since I live in the South (Louisiana to be exact) I’ve noticed most of your ingredience you use are from with their brand of Great Value. I haven’t looked for the ingredience for this Home Made Laundry detergent yet, but I’m asuming that the Borax and Washing soda should be easy to find right? I’m just curious to see if the home made detergent works better then the less expensive brand I normally buy. I have a hint also. I read in one of my e-mails that when using the less expensive brands of detergent, to give them a little boost you add 1 cup of white vinegar to your load of laundry. I tried it christy and it the vinegar helped a lot. I buy the vinegar by the gal, and it’s around 3.00 but well worth it, because there’s 1000 used for plain old white vinegar anyway.
Happy Weekend to you, and your family. Love your new Home!!!
Linda in Keithville La.
I have all of the ingredients to try this, just have not done it yet. I also found a recipe for liquid hand soap that I may try at this blog:
http://frugalhomeliving.blogspot.com/2009/05/blogger-spot-light-farming-on-faith.html
She has a whole series of cleaner recipes in her right side-bar.
Have a great day!☺
Laundry detergent is the least of my laundry expenses! I wonder if there are recipes for Shout spray stain remover & Oxyclean powder? We go through a spray bottle of Shout every week or so treating children’s clothes! I spend literally hours going through their clothes looking for spots and such … my kids wear their food, and are bad to have especially dirty bottoms and knees. And then the clothes that don’t have an inch *without* a spot gets a good soak in Oxyclean. I can’t stand spots … even on their designated play clothes!
Truthfully, I don’t know if I would try this. Grating the soap is a dealbreaker for me, and I don’t have a food processor.
This was a footnote on the recipe for liquid detergent I use. You might try substituting washing soda for Oxyclean if is is less expensive. I haven’t compared the prices.
“Washing soda is sodium carbonate, which can also be found at pool supply stores.An oxygen cleaner like OxyClean works wonders. It has the sodium carbonate (washing soda) & one other ingredient. This can be used as a substitute for washing soda also.”
My sis in law just soaks the clothes in the homemade laundry soap first… and then washes them like normal… and her two messy kids’ clothes are ALWAYS like brand new.
Melody, Just keep an extra bar of Fels Naptha handy. I use that, wet down and rub into the stain, and I also keep a bottle of Ivory Clear dish detergent in the laundry room to pour onto the stain and rub in. That takes care of most everything, and neither will fade clothes. LOTS cheaper than Shout.
I’m just starting my first load with this recipe – hoping for good results. My Publix, which in the past has not stocked these ingredients, now has all 3 (Zote soap) in the laundry aisle, so if someone has been disappointed in the past, check again. I originally bought Fels Naptha from Soapsgonebuy.com.
You might want to try to make a half batch of the liquid soap. I use it to pretreat and it works great. Use a 1/4 bar of whatever soap you use for your dry laundry soap. Melt it in a pan with 2C water on medium heat until it’s dissolved. BTW you don’t need to grate it. Just cut into smaller pieces and throw them in the water. Once it’s melted add 1/4C each of borax and washing soda. Stir until it’s dissolved. Remove from heat. Add 4C hot tap water. Mix well, then add it to a 1 gallon container. Fill the container the rest of the way with water. It will gel over night and need to be stirred or shaken before use. I use this as my laundry soap and pretreater. However, I just put some in a quart size jar with an old tooth brush. My washer and dryer are in my garage so it’s not always convenient to head out there to grab the jar, so I keep it under the sink. When I need it, I pull it out and treat the stain by mixing it with the tooth brush and rubbing some into the stain. I know it seems like alot of work, however it only takes about 10 minute to make a gallon. If you go through a bottle a week, this should last about 4-5 weeks and costs about $0.50 to make. Just shake the gallon container before you refill the jar.
I’ve used this for several months now….and wouldn’t dream of switching back to a commercial brand. I had trouble finding the soap locally….so my son stopped at every Publix food store during a trip to Florida amd now I have a huge supply of the Fels Naptha.
I’m so glad the soap is as cheap as it is!
I pay .99 for mine for each bar
2.26 for washing soda
and 3.76 for Borax
Just in case anyone wanted to know!
I feel the same way you do. It works so much better than everything else out there, I’m not going back!!
Thank you!
Christy 🙂
That is where I got the recipe more then a year ago. My daughter has been making it now for about 10 months, but I just finally made it this past Monday. LOVE IT!!! I used the Kirk’s Castile bar soap for mine.
1 Bar Kirk’s Castile (my daughter really likes the Ivory bar soap)
1/4 C. baking soda
1 C. Borax
1 C. Washing Soda
Used 2 Tbsp per load
I used my Wolfgang Puck food processor for all of the recipe and was done in about 5 minutes. I used one of the attatchments to grate it, then switched to the bottom blade to blend it all. It was all a nice fine powder.
I also made the dishwasher soap recipe. Wasn’t too thrilled with it, but I think I’m going to try it again and use some Epson Salts also — that’s suppose to take care of the cloudy issue.
Thanks for bringing this recipe for laundry soap to everyone’s attention. Oh yeah, you can also add a little Peroxide (that little brown bottle that is so cheap) to your load of laundry to perk it up!
Now you’re just full of clever advice! I love this! thank you so much for posting it for everyone to benefit from!!!!
I’m copying and pasting your comment to email to myself so I can have it handy!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
I use the powered dishwasher soap recipe. I also ended up with clouding on my dishes. I found an easy solution though. Use vinegar in the rinse aid dispenser. It removed almost all of the spots and clouds. Way less expensive than store bought rinse aid with all of those chemicals.
I think I want to give this a try. My family is hooked on Gain but I could use it and for me 🙂 would last forever. The borax reminds me when shopping in the laundry aisle, I always see the it and the ivory in a box and remember how my grandmother and aunts would still get the detergent that bath towels would come in. And scents and trigger such memories, I fondly remember a customer I delivered to that always would buy 6 bars of the Yardley English Lavender and how nice it smelled till I delivered it.
Side note not that anyone else has mentioned, but was it just me or was there not a direct link at the bottom of the email taking me to the Southern Plate page for this. I went back to a previous post and from there found the link to this page. The link to wish Maralee a happy birthday , coupons (yeah and freebies) , and to leave quotes all worked at the bottom but nothing about to continue click here…. just thought I would try to be helpful.
David, the missing link is purely a products of my overtired brain! I am terribly sorry but glad you found it just the same! I sent out an email just now with the link that I forgot to include last night!
Whenever I send out a post, it is always featured on the homepage of SouthernPlate.com but including a link is something I strive to do! lol
Might as well laugh at myself now!
Loved your story!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂