We do a CRAZY amount of laundry at our house. With 4 kids who are quite active, a husband who is constantly in the midst of DIY projects and my tendency to spill on myself at every. single. meal, the washing machine is rarely inactive. When we cut down on our expenses a few years ago, I noticed that we were going through laundry detergent like crazy (and this was before we had the twins).
I knew people who made their own laundry detergent, but the idea of slaving away over a stove to make liquid soap was not going to happen. I searched online for a powdered version and found a few different ones. I tried quite a few and made tweaks based on what works for our family. I've now been making my own laundry soap for 3 years now and I have 2 recipes that I love.
You can also use a combination of the 2 depending on how “natural” you want your laundry detergent to be. We've been making a lot of strides to go natural in every area of our life and so we've chosen the natural route for our laundry detergent as well which means that we no longer use OxiClean or Downy Unstopables. While I love our natural laundry detergent made with Dr. Bronner's Citrus soap, my daughters prefer laundry detergent that includes a bottle of Downy's Unstopables.
Here's what you'll need:
1 box of Super Washing Soda
4 pounds of Baking soda (You can buy the value size box or it may be cheaper to buy 4 16 oz boxes)
1 box of Borax (76 oz)
3 bars of Fels-Naptha or Dr. Bronner's Castille Soap (I like the citrus, but you can also get unscented, lavender, eucalyptus, rose, or peppermint)
*1 container Oxi-Clean (While this is great for stain removal, Oxi-Clean contains ethoxylated alcohol which is made by the addition of ethylene oxide. Ethylene Oxide has been classified as a human carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program so we've opted to stop using this in our laundry detergent.)
*1 bottle Downy Unstopables (If you go the natural route, you'll want to skip this and use Essential Oils instead.)
Instructions:
1. Chop your bar of soap into smaller pieces and then use your food processor to grind to a powdery consistency. (I bought a food processor at Goodwill for $3.99 and I use this just for making laundry detergent and other crafty/household products.
2. Mix all your ingredients (including powdered soap) in a large bucket or trashcan. I usually put a large trashbag inside of a 5 gallon bucket and mix it in there. It tends to keep all the powdered ingredients from ending up on everything! 🙂
I store my laundry detergent in a large glass jar with a lid. I used my Silhouette to cut out the vinyl with the words Laundry Detergent.
