Homemade Laundry Detergent « B in the Kitchen.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

August 6, 2009 at 6:15 pm (Household Cleaning Supplies)

I wasn’t planning to make a Household Cleaning Supply the first entry here. However, the recipe I made last night needs to be revisited and tweaked before I share it. It was a new recipe I’d never tried before.

So, onto the Homemade Laundry Detergent. You may be wondering why I have chosen to make my own laundry detergent? Well, I like to use natural products with few ingredients. The cheapest way to acquire natural products is often to create them yourself. Also, it’s just plain fun.

I got this recipe off of thesimpledollar.com, though I’ve made a couple very minor tweaks.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Ingredients:

1 bar of soap
1 cup Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate)
3 gallons plus 4 cups of water
1/2 cup Borax (optional)
5 gallon bucket, with lid

Steps:

Put 4 cups of water into a pot on your stove and heat to just below boiling. Shave the soap using a knife or a cheese grater. Keep the water just below a rolling boil. Add the soap and stir occasionally until the soap is fully melted.
While the soap continues to melt put 3 gallons of hot water into your 5 gallon bucket and mix in the 1 cup of washing soda. You can also add the Borax at this time if you desire. I prefer to only add Borax to my wash load if I feel the load is dirty enough to warrant it.
After the soap is fully melted add your soapy water to your bucket and stir thoroughly. You should have a bucket full of water that is a slightly lighter shade of whatever color soap you used.
Let it sit, covered, in the bucket for about 12 hours. You should end up with a bucket full of slimy, lumpy goo. If that’s the case good job! Shake the detergent well before use and use about 1 cup/full load. If your detergent came out any way other than lumpy goo, you may want to try again with a different type of soap.

Notes: Washing Soda (Sodium Carbonate) is NOT the same as Baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate), if you have trouble finding Washing Soda in the laundry isle of your local stores try a pool supply store. It is also sold as “Soda Ash” or “PH Increaser”. Just check the ingredients and make sure Sodium Carbonate is the only ingredient listed.

You can pretty much use any soap you want. Don’t use body wash, you want soap. I have only tried this with dial so far though I plan to switch over to an all natural lye soap once the dial I have stockpiled is used up.

I’ve used this for several weeks now with excellent results. Dirty laundry comes out smelling fresh and with no dirt. It’s very gentle so it should be safe for use on delicates. The biggest problem is if you don’t make sure the soap is thoroughly melted you may end up with soap bits stuck to your clothing. You may want to pour your soapy water through a strainer when you add it to your bucket in step 3 to ensure you don’t end up with soap bits in your wash.

Fabric Softener: White Vinegar in the final rinse water makes an excellent fabric softener, it also helps remove odors. I fill my downy ball up to the line and throw that in. Works great.