$$ Frugal Friday $$ – Home Made Laundry Detergent

Posted by on Friday, August 19th, 2011

Today  is Friday which means the topic of the day is fugality.  One way we save money on our grocery budget is by making our own laundry detergent.  (I include detergents and house hold cleansers in our grocery budget.)  And this is a project our kids enjoy doing.

Detergent-Ingr

I must admit, that I was skeptical- very, very skeptical about the whole home
made laundry detergent issue. But I kept on reading user reviews which raved
about the cheap costs and the wonderful results and thought I’d give it a try.
Many of the online recipes for home made laundry detergent instruct the maker
to add quite a bit of water to the dry ingredients in a 5 gallon bucket – which
could later be poured into an empty liquid TIDE container. I wasn’t crazy about
storing 5 gallons of soap, and trying to pour it from a 5 gallon container into a
small one. I was thrilled to find one review that recommended just mixing up the
dry ingredients, and adding about 2-4 Tablespoons of the mixture to the washing
machine – just like one would add the store bought detergent. At that point – I
was SOLD on the idea.
Here’s what you will need:

  • 1 Box Mule Team Borax
  • 1 Large Box Arm and Hammer  Washing Soda (baking soda is pictured, but this is the size box needed)
  • 6 Bars of Soap. The soap will determine the fragrance.

Take a newspaper and spread it out. Open the bars of soap and grate each one
over the newspaper. I used the large grate side of my hand grater and the soap
was fairly easy to grate. Since this project is more like an experiment, I selected
IVORY and IRISH SPRING soaps and kept them separated.
Next, I added 1-2 cups of grated soap to my MAGIC BULLET and finely chopped
the soap a little more. I repeated this process until all the grated soap had some
time in the MAGIC BULLET. Since I’m making a dry batch of laundry detergent
instead of liquid, I felt this was a needed step. If you don’t have a MAGIC
BULLET, try a blender or food processor.
In a large dish tub or bowl mix 11 cups Borax and 11 cups washing soda and the 6
bars of grated, chopped soap. Since I used 2 varieties of soap, I divided my
Borax and soda in half and added 3 bars of chopped Ivory to half, then repeated
this step with the IRISH SPRING. I simply stirred to mix everything well. Then I
poured the finished detergent into a large ZIP LOCK BAG.
I use 2-4 Tablespoons of detergent per load, depending on the size of the load,
or how dirty the load is.

Always check your washer manufacturer instructions when selecting detergents.  I have an HE washer and have been using this home made detergent with no problems.  But the instructions say to purchase and only HE products.  Finally, some folks may not be able to find washing soda and use baking soda in the recipe. But never use washing soda for cooking purposes!


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Filed in Miscellaneous | 11 responses so far

11 Responses to “$$ Frugal Friday $$ – Home Made Laundry Detergent”

  1. DeDe Boyeron 19 Aug 2011 at 5:35 am 1

    Amazing and I’m gonna try this!!! I go thru sooo much laundry living out in the country… love it!!! Thanx girl!!! =]]

  2. karen bon 19 Aug 2011 at 12:05 pm 2

    Add a little oxyclean to them jeans & it will help bring that mud & grime out. Love my homemade detergent. If you can find Fels Naptha that is what the “orginial” recipe I have uses. Next time I’m trying Ivory.

  3. Taraon 19 Aug 2011 at 8:43 pm 3

    I just found some Fels for my next batch. It was at Kroger of all places.

  4. sherrieon 28 Dec 2011 at 5:39 pm 4

    i love my detergent i have 2 toddlers and a baby so i go thru alot of laundry!! and the results are amazing! my clothes and blankets are left feeling extremely soft and fluffy, and smells nice! my laundry soap lasts like 2 months or more, i only make a gallon and a half; i do like 2 0r 3 loads a day! i will def keep making my own detergent!!

  5. Debon 16 Feb 2012 at 10:29 am 5

    I beg to differ that baking soda and washing soda are NOT the same thing. Just read both my boxes. Washing Soda is sodium carbonate and harmful if swallowed and Baking Soda is sodium bicarbonate and used in baking. It might be OK to interchange in laundry but not in baking. Please check your boxes and see what they say. Thanks.

  6. Debon 16 Feb 2012 at 10:34 am 6

    Looks to me as if the Tide jeans are cleaner across the knee. Perhaps if you used super washing soda it would’ve worked better. I don’t know, just wondering. Powdered laundry detergent doesn’t work in a front loader with only cold water. The detergent is put in a dispenser up top and isn’t put directly in the washer. Tried dry and it doesn’t dissolve before going in. Also a cousin who makes all her own soap made her own laundry detergent and it killed the pump I thin on her front loader HE machine. Thankfully it was still under warranty and she got the part replaced free. She no longer uses homemade in her washer. Be careful.

  7. Juli B.on 16 Feb 2012 at 10:36 am 7

    I’ve been making homemade laundry soap for a couple of months now. The recipe I use has Oxyclean powder added in and calls for a “laundry bar”, like Fels Naptha or Zote for the soap. I am amazed at how fresh it smells and how well it cleans. I even overheard my husband bragging on the phone to his mother about it the other day, about how much better our clothes smell and “feel” cleaner. My husband is a painter by trade and getting the paint/laquer thinner smell out of his clothes has always been difficult with commercial detergents. I LOVE homemade laundry soap!!

  8. Taraon 16 Feb 2012 at 10:50 am 8

    Thanks Julie. I’ve got a bar of the Fels and intend to make my next batch with it.

  9. Taraon 16 Feb 2012 at 10:59 am 9

    Hi Deb,

    Thanks for your comments here. There was supposed to be a before and after photo of the jeans. Only the before picture is now showing up, so I removed that portion of the post. I have used both washing and regular baking soda when making mine in the past and was pleased with the results. It’s harder to find the washing soda around here. I removed the statement that both sodas are the same, but at one point in time the stuff I was buying on the laundry aisle listed the ingredients as sodium bicarbonate which was identical ingredient to my baking soda in the pantry. So far no problems here with the home made soap and the HE machine. There’s so much chlorine in our water that it tends to eat through rubber hoses in the dishwasher and washing maching though.

  10. Dyrene Bellon 16 Feb 2012 at 11:20 am 10

    Hi Tara,
    I have to try this dry recipe! I have used the wet before and it is WAY more than one store bought containers worth! Thanks for sharing!

  11. Debon 20 Feb 2012 at 12:22 am 11

    Tara- glad you haven’t had any problems with the laundry soap in a front loader HE machine. My cousin used a liquid I believe. I always use cold water and with my front loader it wouldn’t dissolve dry since it isn’t put directly in the washer. Also with a cold back porch it is even colder. In winter we keep it just so pipes don’t freeze. I buy a naturally sourced laundry detergent that works with very little, very much less than it says and even less with towels, and non-dirty things. Hubby’s greasy clothes I might use warm and little more than I usually do. Do you have a front loader? I was wondering how it dissolves for you? When I used to use dry it wouldn’t dissolve, just stayed in the dispenser. if you got it to work with a front loader I might make it up and store dry, seems less hassle and less storage needed. Thanks, appreciate the simplicity of this and if it save a lot of money I’m all for it. Of course with just 2 of us it isn’t like folks with children to wash for. Thanks for the posting.