Move over, Mr. Clean

After receiving some homemade laundry detergent last Christmas from one of my friends in my knitting group, I wanted to take a jab at making it myself. I loved the clean smell of the detergent I received and I figured it would also be cost-effective. I finally used up all the detergent I had bought in the past so that I had some empty containers to put the detergent in, so I set about making it last night.

When I bought all my ingredients a few weeks ago, the cashier inquired about the type of soap I was purchasing because she hadn't seen it before and she looked at me like I was completely nuts when I explained that I was going to make my own laundry detergent. She scoffed and said she simply didn't have time to be making her own detergent, but it's really quite simple and fun, I might even add.

The main ingredients are in the photo above: a bar of Fels-Naptha soap (I love the smell of this soap and is usually the one people use for detergent making, but I hear you can use other bars of soap too), a box of Borax and a box of washing soda (not the same as baking soda). The bar of soap was about $1.25 and the borax and washing soda were about $4.50 each. The recipe I used makes about 2 gallons of detergent and you use only a 1/3 of the soap and 1/2 cup each of the borax and washing powder, so just by that calculation alone, you can already see how much you can save on the cost of doing laundry.

So first, I grated the bar of soap. Although I only needed 1/3 of the bar, I did the whole bar and separated the leftovers for another batch. I tried to break down the soap as much as I could by scunching it in my hands.

Next in a large stockpot over low heat, dissolve the grated soap with about 6 cups of water until soap is dissolved.

Next, you add the 1/2 cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of washing soda to the mix and stir until it becomes thick and foamy (like the picture below). Remove from heat and add 1 quart of hot water and mix well.

I then added additional hot water to this solution (about 2 gallons worth minus the quart and 6 cups of water already in the solution - basically, enough to fill the containers you have for your detergent).

Then you just set that aside for about 24 hours or until the mixture thickens.

This morning when I looked into the stockpot, what looked like sudsy water last night (like the photo below),

Looked like a thick, gelatinous, science experiment gone awry. But don't worry, it's perfectly fine for it to gel like this. I just took out a whisk and broke the solution down and mixed it up until it became a liquid again.

Then fill up your containers using a funnel or whatever method works for you and voila! You've got your own homemade detergent! You can add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to jazz up the scent a bit, or I think it smells just fine as is too (I made one batch with lavender and ylang ylang). Just use about a 1/2 cup per load.

Here's all the detergent that I made and filled in my old containers.

Happy Washing!

You can also go here, then click on their "Recipes and Tips" tab and find the recipe there (there's also a recipe for homemade powdered detergent) plus other uses for the borax and washing soda.