I’ve known about making homemade laundry detergent for several years, but I’ve never tried it. I even bought all the ingredients a year or so ago, but they just sat. I still have the washing soda and Fels-Naptha bar, but the Borax was used.
Last week my boss brought me the recipe that her daughter is using. I’m going to pick up some Borax and try it.
I looked around the ‘net for the recipe, just to see if there were any other variations and I found plenty. I found that Trent over at The Simple Dollar makes his own laundry detergent and provided a tutorial here. The recipe he uses is the same as the one my boss brought in, but he uses his solution full strength, one cup per load. The recipe my boss brought says to pour the full strength solution into an old laundry detergent bottle – but only fill it halfway, then fill the rest of the way with water. Also, this recipe says to use 5/8ths of a cup.
The recipe is the same as Trent’s:
4 cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup Borax
Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
Fill 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full of soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use, as product will gel.
Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Lavendar, tea tree oil or rosemary are suggested.
Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
Top load machine 5/8 cup per load ~180 loads
Front load machine 1/4 cup load ~640 loads
I will probably make a batch up on the weekend. It is definitely going to save money over the cost of buying commercial detergent.
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I would love to know how this turns out because I have wanted to try it but haven’t. Are you going to add a bluing agent so that the whites don’t get dingy? I’ve heard they carry it at Winco.
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I’ve always wondered how to make this soap. Does it wash the clothes ok?
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Hi there Mrs. A I would love to try the homemade method for laundry but I can’t my youngest son is allergic to the ingredients, so I have to buy a natural 1. If you like that you should try making your own dishwasher detergent I have posted about it on a blog of mine if you or any other would like this recipe please email me. The dishwasher one works I have had some people say that with really hard water its not as effective, but I haven’t had that much of a problem with it. Good Luck and I hope the garden is doing well. Tammie
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This looks great, and very easy. Thanks for the recipe, I might try it out. Let us know the results.
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What is washing soda? Sorry, but I honestly don’t know what you mean by that.
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
November 19th, 2010 at 5:48 am
@Sue, I’ve created Amazon links in the post to the ingredients. I know I was also unsure of what washing soda was before I found it. Good luck with your soap making adventure!
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[...] did make the laundry soap over the weekend. I grated my bar of Fels Naptha while watching my favorite show Clean House. I [...]
[...] The recipe I used is here, and this post has photos of the batch I made. [...]