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On my to-do list for this week – making my own laundry detergent. Yes, I make my own laundry detergent instead of buying it at the store, and you know what, I like it more than the name brand that I grew up using.
I started making my own laundry detergent about eight years ago, and haven’t had any regrets! In fact, on the rare occasion that something is washed in regular store bought detergent, I notice a difference in the scent (my husband said his shirt smelled like Pez) and in how clean the clothes look. I have 3 young children, and a husband who works on the cars and does yard work, plus I do a ton of cooking and get all sorts of stains, and the homemade detergent works out just as well, if not better, than the stuff in the bottle from the market.
It works out to about 2-4 cents a load vs 18 cents a load or more for the inexpensive store-bought stuff.
Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent
1 bar of Ivory Soap – grated (use a food processor or box grater)
4 cups hot water
1/2 cup Borax
1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (this is sodium carbonate not baking soda or laundry detergent)
Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with the 4 cups of hot water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted. Don’t stir it too much or you will have a bubbly mess!
Fill a 5-gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all of the powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken. This will be the consistency of loose Jell-O the following day.
Stir before using to break up the gel.
Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add the essential oils once soap has cooled. Lavender, rosemary, or tea tree oil are a nice option.
Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 5 gallons.
I use about 1/4 cup per load, a little more if the clothes are particularly dirty.
Since this is a low suds detergent, you can use it in a traditional or front loading washing/HE washing machine.
Around the Garden: June
Lovely your homemade laundry detergent post. Thanks for the tip!
Good morning! I followed your recipe and after leaving it overnight the soap formed into a top disk and then the jelly like liquid under that? Any idea what to do now?
Thanks!
I have never heard of that happening. EEK! The liquid typically is jelly like, but that disc of soap on top is a bit odd. I’m assuming your water wasn’t hot enough when you mixed everything and instead it cooled on the surface (kinda like the fat layer when you chill bone broth). I would try chipping up the soap disc, and heating it up with part of the liquid portion, and then mixing it back in to everything else. I would use a large stock pot that can hold at least half the volume of the detergent and heat it slowly, starting with the disc and a little of the liquid and once melted adding a little more at a time until you have most of the liquid heated and blended together.