Household Recipes: Homemade Laundry Detergent
I am a hardcore couponer.* My kids are even in on it. Whenever we go to the grocery store together they both want to know ahead of time “Do we get any coupons?”. I usually pick out a coupon I had planned on using (for a kid friendly item to make it more fun) and give one to each of them. Their job then is to find the item or items in the grocery store and put them in the buggy. They also get to put them on the belt and hand over their coupons when time comes to pay. Then we talk about how much money they saved that day by using them and I’ll usually go through a drive through for some sort of treat and explain to them how we got that “free” with the money we saved.
Consequently, Katy’s favorite thing to do is get my coupons out of the printer whenever I print them off from websites and such. As soon as she hears that printer going she hollers out “Ma! Can I get the coupons out for you?” and here she’ll come a running with pieces of paper, proud as a peacock. Hint: You can print out coupons directly from SouthernPlate.com by using the Coupons widget about middle ways down in the right sidebar!
One of the things that drives me half mad is the price of laundry detergent. This is one item which is absolutely necessary in your household but so seldom goes on sale. To make matters worse, Katy has had some sensitivity issues to detergent in the past (she broke out in hives when I tried out a lavender scented one and on one other occasion when I tried another detergent) so I am limited to which ones I can purchase.
A while back, I came across a Tipnut.com post on homemade laundry detergent. Now my initial thought was not to replace our laundry detergent but rather to simply know how to make my own in a pinch, if I ever had the need. I just love being able to do things like this on my own, must have been all those episodes of MacGyver when I was younger. I was pretty surprised to find that not only did it clean better than the high dollar brands but it also softened our clothes (I no longer use fabric softener) and made everything even smell fresher than the brand I had been using.
It has been requested by all members of my household (including the youngest, who thinks grating soap is just the coolest thing ever) that I only use this detergent from now on. We’ve been using it for a few months now and I’m totally won over. Of course, they love it for the smell and feel of our clothes, I love it for how great it works and the fact that it only costs me about eight cents per load of laundry now!
In my mind, the commercial versions can’t come close to this.
Tipnut has an extensive list of laundry detergent recipes on her site, including several for liquid detergent. She also has a great FAQ section just for laundry detergent questions! I considered the liquid detergent recipes for all of thirty seconds and went straight with the powder because it suits my commitment to keep things as low maintenance and simple as possible.
This is only my second batch that I’ve made up. It seemed to last forever so this last time I actually measured out how many loads were in each batch so I could give you an accurate figure. No wonder it lasted forever, I had made enough for 160 loads!
Today I’m bringing you the recipe I use which I found on Tipnut.com. After viewing this tutorial, hop on over there and check out her other recipes for detergent to find the one that works best for you. This one is the hands down winner at my house!
You’ll need:
- Laundry Soap (Fels Naptha or Zote are the ones I have used. You can also use: Sunlight Bar Soap, Kirk’s Hardwater Castile, or even Ivory)
- Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)
- Borax
Note: You’re not likely to find all of these things in one store. I usually have to make trips to at least two different stores to get them. One store will have the Borax but put it beside a huge box of Baking Soda instead of washing soda and then another will have the soap. Just have fun shopping around for what you like but be sure you remember where you got everything! I am going to show you a recipe for detergent to make about eighty loads worth but I recommend you get four bars of soap and go ahead and make 160 loads worth because there is enough Borax and Washing Soda in one box to do that much. This will give you the absolute best savings!
The only real work involved is grating your soap. I use a cheese grater for this. I really want to use my food processor but I’m worried about hard soap damaging or dulling my blades so cheese grater it is!
Get your soap, a dishpan or large bowl, and grater and go find something good on TV.
If you have access to one of the first few seasons of Mcleod’s Daughter’s, that’d be my pick.
*I get about three cups of soap shavings from each bar. Measurements will vary according to the size of your bar soap and how finely it is ground.
We’re grating this kind of fine so it melts easier in the water.
If you like, you can run the shavings through the food processor when you are done to make it finer but this works just fine for me.
Measure out your soap grounds in a large mixing bowl. This is where the recipe gets easy.
However many cups of soap shavings you have, half that to know the number of cups of Washing Soda and Borax to put in.
So for six cups of soap shavings, use three cups of borax and three cups of washing soda!
Measure out Washing Soda
And borax..
Stir all of that up!
You’ll have to stir a bit each time you scoop some out to get a good ratio of soap shavings to powder but that’s no big deal.
I store mine in a little flip top container and leave an 1/8th of a cup measuring cup in there to measure it out. Can you believe this only takes two tablespoons per load? Seriously! I put this to the test, too. I’ve figure out that two tablespoons is pretty close to 1/8th of a cup so that is the measurement I use now.
The main difference you will notice between this and store bought detergents is that this detergent doesn’t suds up as commercial ones do. Don’t let that deter you! Once you pull out your first load of clean, fresh smelling, naturally soft and fluffy laundry, that only cost YOU eight cents to clean, you’ll be hooked.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
*This was based off of Tipnut.com’s recipe #4, I just altered the amounts
- 4 Bars Laundry Soap (to yield 12 cups of soap shavings)
- 6 Cups Borax (this is roughly one box)
- 6 Cups Washing powders (this is roughly one box)
Grate soap using cheese grater. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Place in sealed container and measure out two tablespoons for each load.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Smaller Batch Recipe
- 2 Cups Laundry Soap Shavings (you can get this easily from one bar)
- 1 Cup Borax
- 1 Cup Washing Soda
*Follow Instructions For Above Recipe
Soaps you can use: Fels Naptha, Zote, Sunlight Bar Soap, Kirk’s Hardwater Castile, or Ivory
*For great coupon strategies and advice, visit www.southernsavers.com.
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jun 4 2009. Filed under Homemaking, Misc.
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Also, Borax is owned by Dial & Dial DOES test on animals. I read Fels Napha mentioned above so I won’t go into how toxic that is. This is indeed home made laundry detergent but an unsafe one. Cheap maybe but not worth it if you are making conscious choices.
Fels Naptha used to contain Stoddard Solvent which was a skin irritant. It no longer contains that product.
I have used this recipe and found it to be very satisfying. In fact, the reason I came back to this site was to make sure I used the right proportions for another batch.
As for testing on animals…here is a list of companies that do….hard to find our everyday products that are not on the list!!
Companies that test on animals:
Arm & Hammer
Clairol
Clorox
Colgate-Palmolive Co.
Cover Girl
Dial Corporation
Johnson & Johnson
Lever Bros.
Olay Co./Oil of Olay
Pantene
Sally Hansen
Suave
Unilever
Full list:
http://caringconsumer.com/pdfs/companies…
Seriously?
What’s great about this recipe – and the others on the site mentioned – is that they use very small quantities of soap. But they still actually get your stuff clean.
Sorry, but the enviro-scolding gets kind of old.
Fels-naptha is no longer made with naptha.
I just noticed your recipe for laundry detergent. I found this on tipnut several years ago. Passed the recipe along and many neighbors and family members now make their own soap. Beats the heck out of all the perfumey, expensive stuff, and works great in my HE3 washer. I have always used one tablespoon per load and my laundry looks great!
I too have used this recipe for quite some time with great results. The problem I’ve been having is the rising prices of the ingredients. Darn shame because I really don’t want to go back to “store bought” products. They really are nasty.
Well, I found the washing soda – but couldn’t access the site from my phone while grocery shopping….can’t wait to get back and get the rest of the ingredients – I’m not happy with the low cost detergents I’ve been buying and too cheap to buy the expensive stuff!!!
will be reporting back with the results in hard water.
I live in the Huntsville area, can you tell me what store you found the ingredients at?
you can get the stuff at walmart
Go on amazon.com and search homemade laundry detergent it will all come up and it’s all cheap…….
Question: Is this detergent suitable for (he) washing machines?
I use this in a liquid form in my (he) washer, have for quite some time…ever now and again i add a cup of vinegar to make sure everything is nice and clean on the inside….
my liquid makes 10 gallons…1 cup super washin soda, 1 fels naptha bar and 1/2 cup borax….dissolved all together in hot water and filled and stored in 5 gallon bucket…it turns into a gel type liquid…and i dilute it 1/2 detergent and 1/2 water….if you want a stronger detergent don’t dilute it so much. It works great and i will never buy regular laundry detergent again! lol…i also scent mine with essential oils… i like to change up the scents so i just fill a detergent bottle and add about 10 drops of essential oil of my choice.
Brittany, how much do you use per load in your he washer?
Since she didn’t reply…I always use about 1/3 cup per Large load.
This is how I do my laundry soap and LOVE it! It is so inexpensive, works great, and love not having to lug in heavy laundry detergent constantly.
I have been using this homemade clothes detergent for a little over a year & love it! Also, if you don’t want to grate your soap-here is an alternative and faster way. Place your Fels Naptha or Zote on a microwavable plate & microwave for no longer than 3 minutes at a time. It will look like a science experiment with the reaction. After you remove the plate, make sure to let the soap cool-it will burn your fingers if you don’t. After it is cool, you can just mash the soap and mix it in with the rest of the ingredients. You may have to remicrowave some of the larger pieces left.
Here’s recipe I’ve use for several years, a little bit different from yours:
1 bar = 1 1/3 cup grated soap
Powdered Laundry Detergent 1 1/3 cup grated Fels Naptha Soap, slightly less than3/4 cup washing soda, slightly less than 3/4 cup 20 mule team borax Mix and store in airtight container or bag. For light loads use 1 tablespoon. For normal loads, use 2 tablespoons. For heavy loads, use 3 tablespoons. Cost per “normal” load .15
I use the same detergent in liquid form. I make a 5 gallon bucket full and it last us about 6 months. I find all ingredients at Krogers. We’ve used it for about 2 or 3 years and love it! Saves a bunch of money! It’s about a nickel a load! I doesn’t suds so it can be used in energy efficient machines.
I have never used a “homemade” laundry detergent before. bought ingredients yesterday at Wal-mart. Tried it for the first time on my husbands work clothes.Could not believe how well it got all the dirt and smell out. Save us money and like the fact it does not suds up. Put white vinager in the rinse water.Thanks for the great idea. Love your website and tweets.
Ok, you’ve talked me into trying it now! Thanks for the vinegar tip! I have a spray bottle full of it that I use for everything, including killing weeds that keep growing between the bricks in the walkway! LOVE that it’s not toxic to all my pets and children!
[...] from the Front Porch- I made the laundry detergent today with the Fels bar soap and it smells so yummy! my bedding from the pad up is being washed. [...]
I think the ratio for the “smaller batch” is wrong – it should be 3 cups & 3 cups -
shown as:
Homemade Laundry Detergent
*This was based off of Tipnut.com’s recipe #4, I just altered the amounts
■4 Bars Laundry Soap (to yield 12 cups of soap shavings)
■6 Cups Borax (this is roughly one box)
■6 Cups Washing powders (this is roughly one box)
Grate soap using cheese grater. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Place in sealed container and measure out two tablespoons for each load.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Smaller Batch Recipe
■2 Cups Laundry Soap Shavings (you can get this easily from one bar)
■1 Cup Borax
■1 Cup Washing Soda
How many pounds in the boxes
Thanks Ron
wanted to give a quick update. I do a lot of laundry in our house so I am already making a second batch. went to walmart for all the ingredients and picked a farberware rotary grater for under $6.00 and it took less than 10 min to grate all the fels naptha. well worth the money . i will never buy pre made laundry soap again.
Is this ok for people with sensitivity to a lot of detergents? I can not use anything except GAIN..no tide no arm and hammer detergent etc…would this be likely to cause break outs? Im not quite sure what it is in the soaps that causes the break outs..thats not in GAIN?
Great tip, Nancy! Thanks a bunch!
I use this same recipe to make my laundry detergent. I started using it last year and I love it! It cleans better than the name brand plus it is so much cheaper. It does take some time to grate the bars, but it is so worth it!
My 3 month old son is highly sensitive to soaps. I have been trying out different ones… The one that causes the least amount of break outs is Tide- with no scents… I was just wondering if its likely that this would be more sensitive to his skin? We are trying to get an appointment at the Allergy specialist, it seems like he is sensitive to quite a bit…
Thanks! Kristina.
This detergent is good stuff! Jillee over at One Good Thing also has tons of recipes for homemade cleaners of every variety. Tawra and Jill at Livingonadime.com also have lots of homemade, money saving recipes for cleaners. Have a great day, everyone!
This is the recipe I use for my homemade laundry detergent. I love it and it cleans very well! (I think the Oxy Clean makes a big difference.)
http://beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/2010/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html#comments
I use the same ingredients to make the liquid version. Love it! It’s cheap, easy, doesn’t aggravate anybody’s sensitive skin, and I love the feeling of doing it myself. We are going to make a batch with our cub scouts. It’s a mini lesson in science, frugality, and self sufficiency all in one.
Thanks so much for posting! Oh I love Mcleod’s Daughter’s!!!!
I’m excited about making some of this.
I made this last week- works great! the only change to my laundry recipe is that I add (2) small containers of Oxy Clean-(off brand) works just as well as name brand AND a co worker gave us all a great idea and said if you want the smelly perfume smell, add Purell crystals to your batch OR add on a as need basis. Great idea, saves tons of money and works great! Im sold on this stuff
I’ve been making my own laundry soap for years. I never use the Fels Naptha – I’ve never been able to find it. I have found that ANY bar soap works.. some better than others… Dial is great, and so is Lever 2000 — . also, washing soda is hard to find here and Oxyclean is a great substitute. … and you don’t need as much soap as stated above. I use 1 bar to a whole box of borax / and add equal amount of Oxyclean. It only takes a spoonful to a load of laundry.
I found everything to make this at Walmart.
BTW…. I picked up a old non fancy food processer at a yard sale for $2. I use it strickly for my laundry soap. Just put the big blade in the bottom, turn it on and start dumping in your soap and then alternating cups of Oxyclean and Borax…. ta da… a tub full in less than 2 minutes
Christie, I love your recipes! I will say that I found out about making my own a couple of years ago and that was it for me! Only I, like some of the others here, use a liquid recipe: I did the math!!
It is super inexpensive to make!!
TOTAL COST- Per recipe= $2.40 / 1280 loads (1/4 cup per load) =
$ .001875 per load!!!! THAT’S WAY LESS THAN A PENNY!!!!!
(It sometimes costs me a bit more, because I sneakily use 1/3 cup. But really all you need is 1/4 cup.)
I’ve been using the liquid since 1999. Recently I tried this recipe for the powder version only the one I used added 2 small containers of oxyclean powder. Its a lot easier to store and use in powder form. I love it.
C an you use this detergent in the HE washers?
I’ve been making the liquid version of this soap for over five years, it doesn’t irritate my daughters skin like store bought soaps. I find all the ingredients at Meijer for a lot cheaper than online options.
I’m allergic to Borax. I found that out more than 30 years ago when I used it to try to brighten cloth diapers. I broke out on my hands and arms. Can’t use this recipe!
And sometimes….silly fans will bring a gallon of laundry detergent to an event to “gift” to you. LOL!!
@Pat, there are other versions without Borax online just google
‘laundry soap recipes without Borax.”
I can’t vouch for their effectiveness, but I know they exist.
THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING!!
Can this be used in cold water?
I finally got around to making mine. I’ve had the recipe forever but couldn’t find the fels-naptha soap. While I know you can use others, I’ve heard it’s great for pre-treating too, so I wanted to find it.
I’ve had the stuff on hand for over a month but it took that long for be to use up the laundry soap I had.
Can I say this smells soooo good. The recipe I had called for a few drops of essential oils, but who needs them? The soap smells divine, clean and fresh and like clean laundry should.
I only used it in two loads so far but I have to say, I really think they were cleaner, I know they smelled cleaner. I’m so happy! I need to get more supplies so I can mix up a bigger batch.
Btw, the recipe I came across is the same ratio as yours but the blogger suggested using your food processor to grate the soap and mix all the ingredients. Worked well for me, but I don’t use mine that often, I didn’t notice in harm to my processor, but I don’t know if it dulls the blade or not. I don’t use mine often enough to worry about it, but it sure made the whole process very quick
Walmart now carries all three items and groups them together in the laundry aisle. I’ve been making my own detergent for years and love it. It cost me 7 cents a load. I can sure tell the difference in my whites if I’m goofy enough to run out and have to use “store bought”!!
I use my food processor for the grating and mixing. It works great and doesn’t dull the blades. Clean up is a snap, since it’s just soap!!
I get tired of hearing the eco baloney…….soap down the drain is just that…soap down the drain, no matter what brand.
i am not sure on this recipe-i made it years ago and i did not care for it. i might have made it wrong or not used enough in the wash . sue
I have been making the liquid mix for a few months now, and I love it. I am going to make the dry mix, just because my 5 gallon bucket is in use. I use DISTILLED WHITE VINEGAR as a fabric softener. It works great, does not irritate anyone’s skin. My family has all kinds of allergies and sensitive skin issues, so this works amazingly well for us!!
I cant wait to try this. If I use the dry version will it work in the washer using cold water?
Can you use this in cold water?
I just made this! I used ivory soap and tried the microwave idea which work somewhat, but I wanted it more powdered. So I ran the flakes through the pulser on my food processer. While I was doing that my hubby went out and found a really good container with a snap top on it. It’s big enough to mix the ingredients too! I have pinned this on Pinterest.
OK. Just found out by trying this that you have to start your load with hot water to get the detergent to melt. So, in answer to questions about using in cold water, there IS a trick to it.
[...] (Who has room for a 5-gallon bucket in their laundry room anyway?) I made a powdered version from this recipe I found after researching a few different [...]
I made the smaller batch adding 1 cup of Purex Lavender Crystals, next time I will add 1/2 a cup instead because it is so strongly scented, I can stretch the bottle out for more batches. This recipe makes my whole house smell delightful and cleans my laundry wonderfully! I used 2 tbls per load. I also tried the liquid recipe with Lavender Ultra Dawn….I didn’t like it as much….but it is definitely easier and cheaper to make…but that’s a whole ‘nother story.. I had a 72 oz Purex detergent bottle to fill and I had to do so much math (JK my husband did!) Thanks so much for all of your tips! I am hooked on your site;)
I found all three ingredients side by side at Ace Hardware!
I love this detergent recipe and have used it for months! I wanted to make my sister a batch and she has two small children with allergies and respiratory problems. Does anyone know the best way to make this for them? I was looking up hypoallergenic bar soaps but I can’t find out enough about borax or washing soda….thanks
[...] Laundry Detergent – NOT SAFE for Cloth Diapers Original How-To can be found here at Southern Plate 1 bar of Fels-Naptha 1 cup Borax 1 cup Arm&Hammer Washing [...]
I made this the first time last week and love it. I made the dry and added 1/3 bar of LAVA soap as a degreaser. I love it. I may make the liquid this week, just for fun.