I officially feel domestic after I was given a recipe for making my own laundry detergent. Not only is it cheap, it takes about fifteen minutes to make and it only requires 1/8 to 1/4 cup per load (depending on load size and water quality/hardness). I’d never heard of some of the ingredients before but fortunately, they’re sold in the same location in the laundry section of most stores. This detergent works great and really leaves the clothes fresh without an overwhelming “perfum-y” smell. It’s great for smelly dishcloths and I even tried it on the cloth diapers and was impressed how much better they smelled post-wash!
Ingredients:
12 cups Borax
8 cups baking soda
8 cups washing soda
8 cups Fels-Naptha laundry soap (grated–hint: 1 bar grated equals 2 cups)
Combine all ingredients and use 1/8 to 1/4 cup per load (half a recipe fits in a gallon ice cream tub so go eat some ice cream so you have room for your homemade laundry detergent!)
7 Responses
Hi Rachael! I recently saved 2 dish washing powder recipes, but haven't tried making it yet. Well done with your laundry detergent!
Thanks for linking up at the Make My Saturday Sweet blog hop!
Tina – mom of 4 and author of 5 blogs
http://abooksandmore.blogspot.com
I've never prepared my own laundry detergent, but have been interested in doing so. I might try it out when I run out of my current detergent. But knowing myself I'll probably buy the ingredients ahead of time just to keep myself motivated.
P.S.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog!
I've been using this recipe for almost a year now. I love it!
You may want to read up a little on using it with cloth diapers…it seems like I heard somewhere that using homemade detergent (I think it's the borax) can make them break down sooner, so they don't last as long. But maybe that's only with certain brands!
You are welcome! Hope you like the recipe too!
I wish I would have known about it earlier!
Yeah, I'm pretty skeptical about needing to use certain detergents for my cloth diapers since they're just cotton, like most of our clothes. I could certainly see it with other materials. I just like that they don't smell stinky after being washed, haha! 🙂