I can’t believe it finally happened; I ran out of laundry detergent. I did the most frugal thing I could think of, I made my own homemade laundry detergent for just pennies. I haven’t bought any laundry detergent for a while, since I have gotten several bottles and packs of laundry detergent to review and giveaway. And now I have run out. It is way too rainy today to go outside and spend money on something I wash down the drain. Here are the ingredients I use for a great and powerful homemade laundry detergent.
Each ingredient in homemade laundry detergent has a different function.
Soap – The soap gives the detergent the cleaning power to clean the clothes. Other recommended brands to try are Fels Naptha, Zote or even a castile soap. I used Ivory, since this is what I had on hand.
Borax - Is a naturally occurring mineral and is used to act as a deodorizer and whitener in the detergent. Come back tomorrow to enter to win a box of Borax for FREE!
Washing Soda – This is specifically for washing and is not baking soda. Washing soda helps remove dirt and odors from the clothes.
Dawn Dish washing Liquid – This is awesome for a clothes pretreater for stains. It also acts as a degreaser to remove the oils from your skin left on clothes. If it can get oil off of ducks and marine life, it can get your oil out of your clothes. Click to read more about Dawn and using it in your Laundry.
Oxy Booster – This helps boost the laundry detergent to help fight stains and whitens clothes with out bleach.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
Ingredients for Homemade Laundry Detergent:
1/2 cup Borax (Check tomorrow for FREE Borax!)
1/2 cup Washing Soda
1 Bar Ivory Soap
1/4 Cup Dawn Dish Liquid (secret ingredient)
1/2 cup Oxi booster (secret ingredient)
Lots of water to fill large laundry detergent bottle
1. First shred 1 bar of soap. I used Ivory soap. This looks like yummy coconut when it is all shredded in the plate. I have had people ask if I use my cheese grater for this. Yes I do, then I put it in the dishwasher to clean it. It’s soap it washes off.
2. Add six cups of water into a pot on the stove. Put in the shredded soap and heat until the soap melts and dissolves completely in the water. This doesn’t take long.
3. Next add the washing soda, Borax, Dawn Dish Liquid and Oxi booster. Mix well until dissolved.
4. Pour four cups hot water into your stir pot. Then pour your soapy mixture in there and mix well.
5. Now add around 20 cups of warm water to your mixture and mix well. Just enough to fill the laundry detergent container. Mine is for 96 loads. Let this set for 24 hours to set thoroughly. To use just pour about the same amount you normally would use when washing 1/2 cup – 1 Cup. I use the same measuring cup that came with the container.
That is homemade laundry detergent for just pennies a load. Before the wash shake the container a little to make sure the laundry detergent is mixed well. It tends to separate over time and might be a little watery if you don’t. This recipe is great if you have kids or a husband with a dirty job. This will tackle lots of stains to get really clean clothes every time.
Using just the first three ingredients will get you the basic homemade laundry detergent recipe. Add Dawn give a degreaser and added stain remover to this homemade laundry detergent. The oxy cleaner gives an added boost to the detergent for brightening the clothes.
How much did this cost me. Hard to say. The Ivory soap was FREE, both Boxes of Borax and washing soda were around $3.00, the Dawn was $0.50 for the bottle and the Oxy powder was around $3.00. This probably cost me less than $0.55 to make. This recipe is my own. I don’t think I have seen this particular recipe anywhere on the internet with both of my secret ingredients. Have you ever made homemade laundry detergent? If you make this recipe, let me know how you like it. Check out my homemade fabric softener recipe for how to soften your clothes.
Hooray for being in the top 3! Thanks for the linky!
You are so welcome! I can’t wait to see what you have been working on this week!
Yay! Thanks for the shout out!
Your dress was so cute from last week. Thanks so much for sharing!
You are so awesome making your own detergent. I’ve tried some recipes but I really hate grating soap
And I’m yet to try a homemade recipe that works like Tide. Maybe, I need to try it again!
Thanks Lena! It didn’t really take that long to grate the soap. I kinda thought it was fun. I added the Dawn for extra stain removing properties that you get in most commercial laundry detergents. I haven’t seen anyone do that yet. I add Dawn to my wash loads anyway. I just thought I would include it while making my own so now I wont have to add it every time. I am washing a few loads today to see how it does. It smells super clean! We will see how it works today.
Lena this worked GREAT! My little face left a nice blue frosting stain on my favorite pair of khaki shorts. I washed them with my new Laundry Detergent without any pretreating and the stain came right out! I was really impressed. This does work. You may want to add the Dawn. It works great in your laundry to get out tough stains.
Umm, when I did step 3, it bound with the soap and turned to a thick “mousse” of bubbles on the top of the mixture. I heated this more and it reduced it a bit, but I was still left with a lot of thick foam that appears to be mostly the ivory soap now. I’ve separated it into containers with equal amounts of liquid and foam and will gently mix them to see if it dissolves again.
Hmm… This has not happened to me. Was the Ivory soap dissolved completely before you put the rest of the ingredients in? After it cools it will separate a little and you may need to shake it up a little before you use it. Let me know how this works for you.