Homemade laundry detergent

At the beginning of this week I finally ran out of the laundry detergent that I bought a year ago at a salvage store.  Before that, we had successfully once tried making our own detergent (a very large batch) and were quite happy with it.  I asked my ds to make this, and he enjoyed doing it.  It doesn’t take long at all and it’s very satisfying to know how to make something like this yourself!  And of course, it’s very economical. 🙂

Homemade laundry detergent 

• 1 1/2 c. borax
• 1 1/2 c. washing soda
• 1 bar soap, grated (Ivory, Fels Naptha, Zote – I use Ivory because it’s easily available in my store)
• optional – add 1 c. Oxyclean

Use 1 tablespoon per regular load, 2 T. for heavily soiled loads.

You might not have heard of washing soda or borax, but they are more common and thus easily found than you’d expect.  I was able to find the washing soda and borax in the laundry detergent of the local supermarket.  It might seem a bit pricey initially when you add up the cost of the supplies, but because you only need 1 – 2 T. of the homemade detergent (vs. 1/4 – 1/2 c. of store detergent), it lasts a long time and is actually very inexpensive if you figure out the cost per load compared to your regular laundry detergent. 

Avivah