Seriously? Make your own laundry detergent when you can go to the store and snatch some off the shelf really quick? Seriously. Make your own laundry detergent no matter how convenient it is to run to the store and buy some. I mean, with the price of gas these days, it may cost you more in gas to go get the detergent off the shelf than the store-bought detergent is actually worth. Spend a little time to make your own, save a TON of money on detergent over the next few months, and use that extra mulah to go get yourself a manicure or a pedicure. Your clothes will be just as clean as when you bought the stuff straight off the shelf. Try it. You might be PLEASANTLY surprised.
INGREDIENTS:
1 box (4 lbs 12 oz / 76 oz / 2.15 kg) 20 Mule Team Borax (Wal-Mart $3.38)
1 box (3 lbs 7 oz / 55 oz / 1.56 kg) Arm & Hammer All Natural Super Washing Soda (Wal-Mart $3.24)
4 bars of soap (Fels-Naptha, Ivory, Zote or Kirk’s Castile), finely grated (Dollar General 10-pack Ivory $4.12)
*1 box (4 lbs / 64 oz / 1.81 kg) Baking Soda (Wal-Mart $2.21)
*1-2 container(s) (1.87 lbs / 30 oz / 860 g) oxi cleaner (Dollar General – store brand - $2.25, but I found another generic version later at my favorite DOLLAR store)
TOOLS:
Hand-held grater, or you can use your food processor to grate the bars of soap (DOLLAR store for a grater)
Container/bowl in which to grate your soap bars (I actually use one of my end-product storage containers in which I grate my bar soap) (*FREE* if you re-purpose a container, which I do, or go to your favorite local DOLLAR store)
Large container (at least 4 gallons) in which to mix all of the ingredients together (I use a large 4 gallon pail which I purchased years ago at my favorite local DOLLAR store)
Large slotted mixing spoon (metal, wood or heavy plastic) for stirring ingredients together (DOLLAR store)
Air-tight storage container(s) in which to store your finished product (mine were ‘free’, or you can visit your favorite local DOLLAR store)
1 tablespoon measuring device (If you have any liquid medicine dispenser cups you got with any over the counter medicines, these are great, and for the most part have 1 and 2 tablespoon measuring lines. THESE ARE FREE!!! Or you can buy a measuring spoon at your favorite local DOLLAR store)
*Large solid mixing spoon (metal or heavy plastic) for the sifting process (DOLLAR store)
*1 (one) large in size with small hole strainer/splatter guard for the sifting process (DOLLAR store)
*Face mask - - - the powdered ingredients can dust up during mixing (I found a 12-pack of these at my favorite local DOLLAR store)
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*NOTE: These ingredients/tools are TOTALLY OPTIONAL. However, I DO recommend them, ESPECIALLY the face mask.
* * * * * * *
DIRECTIONS:
I hate measuring things, can you tell? One box of this, one container of that, one bar of something else - - - that’s about as complicated as I like my recipes. The hardest part of this entire recipe is FINELY grating the soap bars, and that is the first thing you do. If you know a couple of days ahead of time that you will be making this, go ahead and take the paper wrapping off of the bar soap to let it dry out some. This helps with the grating process. Some people use their food processors for this, and I am assuming they have a dishwasher for clean-up afterwards. I do not, and have no desire to hand wash the soap off that disc once I am done, so I actually purchased a hand-held grater at my favorite local DOLLAR store to use specifically for making my homemade laundry detergent, and it worked beautifully. Also read reviews that people using the F-N bar soap ruined their food processors, that the F-N really DOES have to be hand grated. Now I have to pass along a really cool tip. Don't grate the soap, microwave it for 45 seconds to a minute (if you have a microwave). It expands a whole bunch and afterward, you can crumble it into the perfect fine powder. I know this works with Ivory, however I did see one comment that this does not work with some of the other soaps I've listed, so cut off a small piece and try it first if you want to. Once you have grated all four (4) bars of soap, it is time to get down to the mixing. (Put on your face mask now if you plan to use one, I do.) You simply pour a little bit at a time out of each box of ingredients, not forgetting to add some of your grated soap, and stir them all together with your slotted spoon, until well mixed. Keep adding a bit of the ingredients at a time until it is ALL thoroughly mixed together. Some people use their food processors for this mixing process step as well. More power to you if you want to do that, but I will stick with my handy-dandy pail and slotted spoon mixing process. Pour your finished product into your air tight storage containers. I actually use two (2) clean ( re-purposed for use here) one-gallon (4 quarts / 3.78 litres) ice cream buckets with handle/lid. You only need to use 1-to-2 (one to two) tablespoons of the finished product PER LOAD of laundry. If you have a large or heavily soiled load of laundry, you can use up to 4 (four) tablespoons per load, but you should NEVER have to use more than 4 tablespoons (which equals 1/4 cup) per load of laundry. I have seen SEVERAL different recipes and NONE call for more than 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) per load. Of course, you can adjust this per-load measurement recommendation to your own personal preferences. *NOTE: If you have hard or well water, you will use more. If you have soft water, you will use less. A good rule of thumb is to try less first, and then if you need more, use more. Also, if you have a HE or front loading washer, less is needed. Top loading washers need more. If you have a HE or front loading washer, you may want to use hot water to dissolve the powder first and THEN add that mixture where you put the liquid laundry detergent on your machine. This recipe is good for people with sensitive skin/laundry detergent allergies. THIS RECIPE SHOULD LAST A FAMILY OF FOUR WELL OVER A YEAR. You can do the price comparison break down if you want to, but I trusted others online who said the cost breaks down anywhere from ONE PENNY TO JUST FIVE CENTS PER LOAD of clothes (depending on the cost of your ingredients, which we all know not only vary from store to store, but from city to city as well, but if you're a good couponer, your cost will be on the lower end), compared to the least expensive GENERIC/STORE BRAND detergent which was 12 cents per load. If you use the higher end detergents, you can save over a hundred dollars a year on detergent alone.
Now we get to the *OPTIONAL* part(s) of this recipe. I did extensive online research and reading of reviews to include these ingredients/steps to the making of my homemade laundry detergent. Baking Soda is purely optional, but it acts as a natural fabric softener, so I choose to add it into the powdered laundry recipe instead of adding a (natural) fabric softener (i.e. vinegar) to my rinse cycle water. I save a step AND money by adding the Baking Soda into my main laundry detergent mixture. The oxi cleaner is also an optional part of the recipe. When you look at the ingredients, make sure it says SODIUM PERCARBONATE. Again, after much online research and reading of reviews, I decided to go ahead and add this ingredient to my recipe as well. It surely can’t hurt.
I’ll bet you’re wondering about that whole sifting process by now, aren’t you? Have no fear. I am about to explain. And just let me tell you UP FRONT that THIS is a very tedious and time consuming process, but I believe WELL worth the effort. As I have already stated, I read NUMEROUS recipes and online reviews of said recipes BEFORE I made my own homemade laundry detergent. And in my online research, I found out a few things. ONE - - - this recipe IS safe for HE washing machines. TWO - - - this is a low-to-no-sudsing laundry detergent formula, so don’t freak out when your laundry doesn’t suds up like you’re accustomed to it doing. THREE - - - choose your bar soap wisely. I chose Ivory. HOWEVER, I kept seeing the occasional review/comment stream with warnings about the bar soaps from appliance repair people. Bottom line was this - - - these appliance repair people said to use bar soaps with NO ANIMAL FAT. Apparently bar soaps containing animal fats can lead to build-up in your machine itself, hence the need for said repair man. Ivory and Fels-Naptha BOTH contain animal fat. (F-N is made by the DIAL Corporation, incidentally, and should be found on the laundry aisle. If it’s not there, look on the aisle with the bath soaps. If your local store does not carry the F-N, they can most likely order it for you since it is made by DIAL.) The Castile soaps do NOT contain animal fat, they are ALL NATURAL INGREDIENTS, vegetable based. As a matter of fact, the Kirk’s Castile soap only has 4 (four) natural ingredients - - - PERIOD. Here is Kirk’s website, http://www.kirksnatural.com. You can find a list of local retailers, or buy it straight from the company. And almost without fail, the repair people commented that the bar soap used in these homemade laundry detergent recipes was not finely enough grated. If it had been, they said the repair probably could have been avoided. Hence, my own ‘sifting process’ was added to the recipe.
I place the splatter guard (which I bought specifically for this purpose at my favorite local DOLLAR store) over my original 4 gallon mixing pail. I scoop a little (I used a measuring cup and scooped about one cup at a time) of my finished product out of my final air-tight storage containers and pour it onto the strainer/splatter guard. Once all of the fine powdered ingredients fall through your splatter guard/large sifter, all that is left are the pieces of grated bar soap. I use the back of my solid spoon to continue to crush the bar soap into very fine granules while the soap is still on the strainer/splatter guard. It takes a while to do this - - - you have been warned! Using the back of the solid spoon, I press it all out, use the solid spoon to scrape it all back up again in the middle of the splatter guard/screen, then press it out again, repeating this process, until I have VERY fine pieces/granules of the bar soap. I press out/scrape up the bar soap pieces SEVERAL times. Once the bar soap pieces are VERY fine, I dump them into the bucket along with the sifted powders, and mix all of the ingredients together again. Repeat this process until all of your homemade powdered laundry detergent has been sifted and re-mixed. Then place the TRULY finished product back into your air-tight storage containers along with your tablespoon measuring device.
Here is one final side note. In one further effort to avoid any bar soap build-up in your machine itself or your drain, I DO recommend that about once a month that you DO add some vinegar to your laundry IN A HOT WATER LOAD OF CLOTHES (I am assuming that would ONLY be your all-white items). The traditional combination of baking soda and vinegar added to drains followed by VERY HOT WATER is used to keep drains unclogged, so I am assuming here that using vinegar (since my recipe already contains baking soda) once a month will help alleviate ANY soap build up, either in the machine itself, or your drain lines.
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