How To Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

I have always thought that it was a "cool" thing to be able to know how to make laundry detergent and soap. I get a feeling of self-reliance knowing that I made my own laundry detergent. I thought I would share this with ya'll.

I know that there are some great recipes out there, so feel free to share some of yours.

 

Good post...Thanks

 

thanks for posting this.. K9 Tom

 

Use recipe #1. Expand the ingredients to the following:
1 Box Washing Soda
1/2 Box Borax
2 finely grated bars Fels Naptha (Any bar soap will do in a pinch)

Wearing rubber or vinyl gloves, mix in a 3 gallon lidded pail (I use an old Oxy Clean Pail). Break up the large lumps of Borax by hand. Make sure it is fully mixed. Fels Naptha is a hard yellow soap and the other ingredients are white. It will look like a fine grit white powder flecked with yellow-gold.

To use: 3 Tablespoons of the "detergent" per standard load, double for heavily soiled. That is all you need. A typical batch lasts anywhere from 6 months to a year. This is cheap and GOOD stuff, and it is easy on septic systems.

FOR FABRIC SOFTENER:
2 Tablespoons Baking soda
1/2 cup white vinegar
Mix in a LARGE container, like 6 cup plastic measuring cup (I got one from the dollar store). When the fizzing stops, mix the remaining powder into the liquid. Pour in to the softener ball, or dump in for the final rinse. There is no smell of vinegar left on your clothing (they come out smelling like clean, fresh water) and the baking soda softens the fibers without adding chemicals or perfumes to your clothing.

I don't recommend the liquid detergents, they are a serious pain in the keister, do not last as long, and frankly are not that cheap when you think about time input versus product output. Time is a precious commodity. Only you can prevent wasted time. Only you. Enjoy!

 

Will be trying my hand at this very soon. A friend makes hand soap but have never seen laundry soap--Thanks. My brother used to manufacture cleaning agents and will check with him about other components and sudsing agents.

 

Why You Should STOP Using that Homemade Laundry Detergent (like right now!)

Why You Should STOP Using that Homemade Laundry Detergent (like right now!) - Butter Believer

 

I use dawn dish soap.

 

So the linked site recommends using home made detergent to "strip" the home made detergent?
Quote
"There are also instructions on that site for how to “strip” your clothes so that all the nastiness your DIY laundry soap has built up in your clothes over the months or years can be thoroughly flushed away. You can either do a mixture of washing soda, borax, and Calgon water softener (not the most “chemical-free” thing out there, and you can instead add more of the washing soda and borax, but people report the best results from using all three)"

 

BRing on the chemicals. I'm not a fan of Homemade laundry soap. It just doesn't get things as clean. I do add borax to mine when something is really dirty. The only reason to make laundry soap is if you are highly allergic to commercial soap and then you have to do a lot of hand washing

 

I add Borax when I am washing the boy's clothes. It really help deodorize their clothes. I have also been using Dawn detergent and fels naptha for stains.