Tips for: Homemade Laundry Detergent

We've been making our own laundry detergent for almost 2 years now, and I love it!  It saves us money, cleans our clothes well, and is one less thing for me to be continually buying at the supermarket!  In the past 2 years, I've only had to make 3 batches of detergent (I just made the 3rd, so it seems to last for quite a long time, though that may be changing as I add another baby to the mix soon!).

The first batch of detergent I made was a liquid, and I followed the Duggars' recipe.  It worked well, but I didn't like having to store 10 gallons of liquid detergent.  So the past 2 batches I've made have been a powder detergent.  It's much easier to store and even a bit easier to measure, if you ask me.  The recipe for powder detergent that I've settled on (for the most part) is from the How Does She? blog.  Below is my slightly revised recipe (because I'm soo bad at following recipes fully!).

See the note if you plan to use the detergent on baby clothes and/or cloth diapers.  I've had good success with the revised recipe on both of those delicate items, but Enoch doesn't have super sensitive skin, so I'm not sure if it'd work well for babies who do or not.  And I'll admit that it's probably not as good for cloth diapers as Charlie's soap or Rockin' Green soap, but it has worked well for us and gets out the stink (I wash once on cold, regular and then again on hot, super wash for each diaper load.)

finished product

Ingredients:

• 1 (4 lb 12 oz) box Borax (Found in the detergent aisle)
• 1 (3 lb 7 oz) box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (Found in the detergent aisle)
• 1 (3 lb) container OxiClean (Found in the detergent aisle)
• 3 (15 oz total) bars Fels Naptha (Found in the detergent aisle)  
• 1 (4 lb) box Baking Soda (Found in the cooking aisle or detergent aisle)
• 1 (55 oz) bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener (Found in the detergent aisle)
• 5 gallon bucket with lid (empty & clean; can use aluminum foil for lid)
• Large paint stirring stick or spatula (for stirring)

Directions:

• Grate up the Fels Naptha soap bars until it's in little pieces, like couscous.  (I use my food processor and shred it like cheese, then process it with the chopping accessory.)
• Layer all ingredients into 5 gallon bucket (doing thirds worked well for me).***
• Stir between each layer and then again when you have it all in the bucket.
• Store in a cool, dry place.  
• Use 1-3 Tbsp per load of laundry.  (I typically use 2-3 T, which happens to correspond well to the fabric softener's measuring cap.)

baby/diaper detergent set aside
-I store it in my empty OxiClean containers-

Notes:

***If you plan to use this soap for babies or cloth diapers, leave out the fabric softener until all of the other ingredients are combined.  Then remove about 1/2 of the detergent into a separate container to set aside as your baby/diaper detergent.  After that, you can pretty easily add in as much of the fabric softener as you'd like to into your 5 gallon bucket.  I usually use 1/2 bottle of fabric softener for the remaining 1/2 of the recipe that needs it.

If you've never tried to make your own laundry detergent, I'd recommend giving it a go!  It only takes about 20 minutes from beginning to end, and this recipe lasts such a long time!   {And did I mention that it'll stretch your laundry dollars?!?!}

Happy Washing!