I love knowing our Laundry Detergent for the next year is only costs about $10! and I won't run out or have to buy any.. it's all stored neatly in 2 jars in my cabinet above the washer! I hate spending our hard earned money on household supplies, and knowing that they are so damaging to our environment! So, for few years I've been making my own Laundry Detergent and I think it's pretty amazing! There are lots of recipes on the internet and I've tired many of them.. previously I was using a liquid form but it's a lot of extra work that isn't necessary. I came up with a recipe for a powder that is quick and cheap. I use this in my top loading washer, but you can also use it in a front load washer (since there are virtually no suds) only use 1/2 the amount per load... which means its even cheaper!!!!
Powered Laundry Detergent (Beginners Single Batch Recipe)
1c Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1/2c Borax
1 bar Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap
Grate the bar Fels-Naptha on regular cheese grater and combine with washing soda and borax, mix well. Use 1T per load, recipe yields about 3 cups of detergent which will do 48 loads of laundry for just $1.69
When I make my laundry detergent I like to make a bunch at once - I try to make enough to last us at least a full year! Here's my Large Batch Recipe and modified instructions:
Powered Laundry Detergent (Large Batch Recipe)
1 box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, 55 oz
3c Borax
6 bars Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap
Same instructions as above or to eliminate hand grating the bar of soap..
In food processor or blender: 1/2c of washing soda, 1/4c Borax, and 1/2 bar of soap, coarsely chopped... on low-medium process into a find powered. This grinds the soap and mixes it up all in one step - Repeat for each 1/2 bar of soap.
I found that putting the soda/borax in the bottom of my Vitamix blender and the soap on top, grinds it up more efficiently (if you are using a large capacity food processor you may be about to put in a full bar of chopped soap/1c soda/1/2c borax all at once - experiment to see what works best with your equipment!)
This large batch recipe will make enough laundry detergent to do 288 loads of laundry, using 1T for each large load - for us this will last us a year (we do 5 to 6 loads of laundry per week on average)
Don't forget to check out my blog post on Homemade Fabric Softener!
