Homemade Laundry Detergent

A long while back, I was browsing Pinterest and saw a recipe that was repeatedly posted for homemade detergent.  I thought, hey, I should try that because it is one more way that I can make my family more self sufficient (plus, it is supposed to save you a lot of money).  Well, I waited and waited to actually make it because it seemed silly to me make a huge vat of detergent when we were about to move (I highly doubted out movers would move it for me).  So, once we got settled into our new home and I ran out of store-bought  detergent, I decided it was time.  I bought all of my ingredients and once my kids went to bed, I whipped up a batch.

Now I just want to make a quick disclaimer.  I love store bought anything.  I'm not a crazy person that thinks that people who make their own things are better than others.  Really, I don't.  However, I love trying new things.  Also, I belong to a church that asks us to be prepared.  So, I wanted to learn how to make detergent in case something ever happened and I could no longer buy it at the store.

With that out of the way, let's get on to the results.  The homemade detergent works well, but I wouldn't say it is super fantastic.  I don't think it is any better than store bought detergent.  I'm not sure if I will make it again.  However, it does save a ton of money on detergent.  I made a batch back in July and I still haven't even used half of it, maybe not even a third.  It only costs about $20 to make and can last about 9 months (depending on the amount of laundry you do).  My mother told me about a homemade detergent that my aunt made that was a liquid and not powder detergent.  I think I may try that next.  If I don't like that any better, I will probably go back to store-bought detergent for a while.  However, if I ever need to make detergent, I can and I know it will work.

You can see the post and recipe I followed here (Being Creative to Keep My Sanity).

Here are the ingredients that you will need.:

1-4 lb 12 oz box Borax (76 oz); found in the detergent aisle
1-4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda; found in the baking aisle
1-55 oz box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (3 lb 7 oz); found in the detergent aisle
3-bars of Fels-Naptha soap; found in the detergent aisle
* optional: 2-small containers of Oxy Clean (or generic equivalent) (about 3.5 lbs total); found in the detergent aisle

First, start by shredding your Fels-Naptha soap.  As I went to do mine, I realized that every single grater/shredder that we had went missing in our move.  So, I had to by a new one.  Knowing what I had to do, I bought one of those snazzy round shredders that they use for parmesan cheese in restaurants.  It made the shredding go so much quicker.  However, the soap took a while to clean out of the shredder (so, I don't know how much time I actually saved, but it saved me on energy).
*Tip 1: Use a big 5 gallon bucket lined with a trash bag to mix your batch.

After, you have shredded your bars of soap.  Add all of the ingredients to your bucket.  Mix well (seriously, mix really well).

You'll have yellowish/orange spots mixed in.  This is the bar soap.  Don't worry, it all works fine in the washer.

I transferred mine into this clear glass container that I had used for flour in my old house.  I kept it empty knowing that I wanted to put my detergent in it.

You need to use 1-2 Tbs of detergent per load of laundry.

I found that the scoop that went with small container of Oxy Clean was the perfect size.  The line just below the rim is 2 Tbs, so I fill it to that line, or just below for a smaller load.

Everything fits perfectly in my container (you can get the same one at Walmart in the kitchen items aisle.  This is the giant one).

And voila, homemade laundry detergent.

There you have it.  Like I said, it works well, but it isn't my favorite.  It doesn't leave your clothes with a strong clean smell (but you can always change that by using fabric softener), but it does leave them clean.