Homemade laundry detergent

Tonight we ran out of laundry detergent and had to go get more. There's always laundry to be done in this house. However, there's always a need for money in this house too. So I decided to get the ingredients to make laundry detergent. It's definitely worth a try. Here's what I picked up. Just so you know, before you ask I picked up all of these things at Walmart in the laundry detergent aisle. Be aware though, I didn't get a picture of my washing powders but what is in the picture here is baking soda. You don't want baking soda you want washing powders. It's not the same thing. They're all next to each other.





Ingredients:

1. a box of Arm and Hammer washing powders
2. a bar of Fels-Naptha soap
3. a box of 20 mule team borax

Directions/Recipe:

1. grate up half of your bar of soap into a medium sized sauce pan
2. add six cups of water and, on medium heat stir until melted.
3. add two cups of washing powders
4. add two cups of borax
5. stir until dissolved
6. In a large enough bucket (2 gallons or more) place 4 cups of hot water and stir in your soap mixture
7. add another gallon plus six cups of hot water and stir
8. allow to cool, will gel over night
9. add to your empty containers

 NOTE: I added the mix into my containers while still warm. When mix starts to gel it will have little beads of solid in it. This will not be as thick of a gel as what you buy, it'll still be a little soupy and will need to be shaken before each use. I use about a 1/2 a cup per load.

WARNING: Brandon has some pretty nasty work pants, that are really really soiled every night he works. Anything that's exceedingly gross should be washed by itself or in a small load, and if you'd like use some of my laundry booster (homemade oxi-clean, recipe to come later)

Fabric softener recipe to come later, along with kitchen and bath cleaner and an all purpose cleaner

This picture really shows what the mixture looks like after it's melted and all the powders are dissolved.

I have found that my laundry detergent recipe works pretty darn well if I do say so myself, but here are some links to other recipes where other people have made their own, you'll see that they don't vary very much! Some will be dry and one is unscented!
Homemade Laundry Detergent @ Simply Designing
Homemade Laundry Detergent @ Great Oak Circle
Hypoallergenic Laundry Detergent @ Ehow
Homemade Laundry Detergent @ Happy Hooligans
Homemade Dry and Liquid Laundry Detergent @ Life at Cobble Hill Farm
Stain Removal 101 discussion about scent free laundry detergent



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