Lucky for me, not all of my readers do just a thing. So I can sound innovative and frugal and smart when I bring them...
*Drum roll please*
Homemade laundry detergent.
Having been previously disappointed with my homemade recipes, I turned to my Mom's recipe (which I have found to be quite lovely and deliciously fresh) - two things I quite admire in a load of laundry.
There is nothing more that I hate than having to purchase a $10 container of "green" laundry detergent. For one, usually there is a ton of chemicals in it anyway. And for two, who wants to spend $10 on laundry stuff! I mean, I can justify spending $10 on a nice cooking oil, or an aged vinegar, or a nice loose-leaf tea...maybe even a fine bottle of wine on occasion. But laundry soap? No thank you.
Please disregard the fact that I just defined a $10 bottle of wine as a fine wine. I know my role in this life and I'm fine with that. The end.
My point being (yes, there is a point!) making your own laundry detergent takes five minutes and saves you that precious $10 so that you can spend it on something more useful and exciting. Like new knobs for your salvaged furniture. Or that organic cocoa powder you have been eyeing for months.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
You will need:
- Five gallon bucket
- Pot
- 1/2 cup borax
- 1/2 cup washing soda
- 1 bar washing soap (available in the laundry soap aisle), shredded on a cheese grater
- Essential oils of your liking (I used tea tree oil and lavender)
- Big, long spoon for stirring
Step One: In a pot on the stove, heat up 2 cups of water. Add your shredded washing soap bar. Stir, stir, stir until it's all good and dissolved in the warm water.
Step Two: Add your borax and washing soda to the mix. Stir, stir, stir to combine.
Step Three: Pour the mixture into your five gallon bucket. Add water until the bucket is three-fourths full. Stir, stir, stir (work those biceps, ladies!) At this point, feel free to add any essential oils that you would like. I put in about 10 drops of tea tree oil (antibacteria, antifungal, and smells delicious!) and about 10 drops of lavender oil.
Step Four: Allow the mixture to sit for 24 hours. It will gel into a nice blobby, gooey lookin' mixture. Yummy. Feel free to give it a couple of stirs during this time as well.
Step Five: That's all! See how fabulous and frugal you are! What a stud!
Use about 1/2 cup per load of laundry, or more for heavily soiled loads. It's important to note that this soap will not have the "suds" that your typical laundry detergent has, but honestly, does it matter? Maybe those suds are just an invention used to doop us into thinking our clothes are getting really clean! This soap does a fine job of cleaning our clothes. If you need to treat a stain, it also works to just rub some of the detergent right on the stain and then let it sit for a little while before washing the garmet.
I don't know about y'all, but I am thankful to be able to save money any way that I can. This five gallon bucket of laundry soap that cost me, I dunno, maybe $1.00 (or less) to make, helps to keep our costs down. And I'm all for that! Plus, as previously stated a thousand times, I am thankful to know all the ingredients in the products that we use. This helps to moderate the amount of chemicals and toxins that we are exposed to every day without even knowing it.
So there you have it. Laundry soap on the homestead.
I am so enthusiastic about homemade soap that I am going to go wash some poopy, stinky, smelly, urine-saturated diapers right now!
Okay, so maybe I'm not THAT enthusiastic.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, my friends.
Just a few things I've learned from doing this for a few years: you can use Ivory soap if you can't get the FelsNaptha, and you can just grate the soap, mix the powders in and use it as a dry soap. I ran out one day (poor planning) when I really needed to do laundry and just tried it dry. Now it's all I do. I had trouble keeping the gel uniform and didn't have anything large enough with a lid, so this works better anyway. Plus, I just make big batches now and use them for about six months. Sorry. Hope this was ok to share. If not, delete it.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you get all of your ingredients?
ReplyDeleteMeaning: I love homemade recipes for everyday things, but I always want to make sure I know where to go to get everything needed so I don't spend hours going from place to place looking if I should be buying online for example. Love this, though!
ReplyDeleteKimberly, you are funny :) Of course it's okay! I have tried the dry as well but I had a problem getting a "uniform" scoop of the grated soap and the dry powders. It was always way too much of one or the other. Do you have this problem? I like the idea of only having to do it every six months though, because that saves on time!
ReplyDeleteLyda, let me save you about four hours of time (not that I wasted this exact amount of hours...:) ) and tell you that the washing soda is available at Stan's. The borax and the washing soap are available at any grocery store in the laundry aisle. I got mine at Top Foods :) Hope that helps!
I also use the powdered form. I put all the ingredients in my food processor and blend, blend, blend. I also use pink zote instead of fels naptha. Fels naptha seemed to make my whites dingy after awhile.
ReplyDeleteI use my food processor, too. Smoooooth.
ReplyDeleteWow Good Job and i like that ..Very nice your all photo's and best details shared in the post ....
ReplyDeleteA food processor is a GREAT idea! That would really help the consistancy - Thanks for the advice!
ReplyDeleteWould this be ok to us in an HE washer?
ReplyDeleteYes! It works in HE.
ReplyDeleteTwo things, how does this work on cloth diapers? I have never heard, and keep wondering. Two, you can buy all of this from an online (and store in mid-south east OH) called Lehman's. They sell all the ingredients and also have a "kit" if you haven't made it before. No, I am not a paid spokesperson, I have seen it in their catalog and thought a lot about getting it. :) I have used the powdered stuff before and did like it, we only stopped because of the diapers.
ReplyDeleteShawnee, I'm sad to say, this doesn't work great on cloth diapers. It works fine for our not-so-dirty laundry, but cloth diapers can put up a fight :) I've found an all natural coconut based cleaner that we use for them instead.
DeleteI love your picture tutorials with the recipe; very helpful. One comment though- from the research I've done I'd recommend a different brand of bar soap. Fels-Naptha still has a number of toxins present. I use Kirk's Castile (available at Cracker Barrel and Meijer) but some others I know use Grandma's Lye.
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you mind sharing the name of the coconut based cleaner you use?