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
Does this work for front loading machines also?
I don’t have a front loader, but I’ve read that it works equally well.
just wondering about your feelings on using borax for laundry. when you google it, it sounds a bit toxic (yes, yes, i know that the stuff in the regular detergent isnt much better)
i found a recipe that doesnt use borax (it uses liquid castile soap, washing soda, vinegar, and baking soda, all stuff i have lying around), but it ends up leaving little white particles on my laundry. did you ever have experience with that kind of problem? i do use 2 tbs per load, so maybe i need to cut down on the amount.