homemade laundry detergent
These are recipes that I use at home and have collected from various sites over the internet or from various books and adjusted to suit.
Update: Below is a recipe for laundry powder that you can find at various places on the net, but I no longer use this recipe. I do not use borax at all (which makes the powder cheaper and better for the environment) and only add a sprinkling of nappy soaker in a really dirty load (or in with the bath towels).
This is how I make my laundry powder: 2 parts grated laundry soap to 1 part washing soda. That’s it!
I also add a few drops of eucalyptus oil into the fabric softener compartment in the washing machine to give nappies and towels a bit of a disinfect and a fresher smell (that fades once dry).
Laundry Powder
4 cups of grated soap (vegetable soap, homemade soap, Sunlight/home brand laundry soap or Lux flakes)
2 cups of washing soda
1 cups of borax
1 cup of nappy soaker
- Combine. Use about 2 tablespoons or up to a quarter of a cup of powder per wash.
- You can leave out the nappy soaker, it just gives the powder some extra grunt, an eco soaker without optical brightening is best.
- If you are using your washing water as grey water on the garden, leave out the borax.
- The role of the borax is to brighten laundry, soften hard water, remove soap residue, neutralise laundry odours, disinfect, remove stains, you can substitute with bicarbonate soda, which does the same things. It’s not going to be exactly the same, but bicarb is a cheaper, more ecological alternative. (Note: I find that adding bi-carb can leave white, powdery marks on the washing if you use too much.)
This is the recipe I usually use to do my washing. I wash in cold water and I don’t use any softeners. I usually add 1 few drops of essential oil like lavender or tea tree oil to the final rinse especially to towels, for a little extra fresh smell.
Laundry Liquid
11/2 litres of water
1 bar of soap, grated (vegetable soap, homemade soap, laundry soap or lux flakes)
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup of borax
- In a saucepan, combine the water and the soap and stir over a medium heat until the soap is dissolved.
- Add the washing soda and borax and stir until thickened.
- Pour the mixture into a 10 litre bucket and then fill with hot tap water. Stir to combine.
- At this point, you could add a few drops of your favourite essential oil for fragrance.
- When cool, store in a plastic container.
- Use approximately 1/4 cup per load
- Add a few drops of essential oil for a fresh scent.
For a fabric softener, add about 1/2 cup of white vinegar (the really cheap stuff) to the final rinse of washing. Once the washing is dry, you don’t smell the vinegar.
For homemade laundry detergent, you need to be a little organised. It’s a bit of a pain trying to put on a load of washing at 6am before work, only to remember you have to grate a bar of soap first!
Update: These days I usually grate a cup of soap at a time, at washing time. Lazy, I know.
Have you read these posts?
- What Is In Homemade Laundry Detergents?
- Laundry Made Frugal
- frugal (and natural) cleaning
- tip tuesday–washing machine maintenance
- homemade air freshener
SAVE MONEY AND TIME ON THE GROCERIES
THE FRUGAL AND THRIVING WAY
Comments
12 Responses to “homemade laundry detergent”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...-
[...] your own laundry detergent will not necessarily save you money over regular detergents, but it is certainly more [...]
-
[...] months on, and we’re still using and washing our terry flats. Yes, we use water and our detergent (homemade) ends up in the water ways. It’s not a perfectly environmental, but a lot better than [...]
Sorry what’s washing soda and where do I get it from? Bunnings?
You can buy washing soda at the supermarket. It’s just called washing soda on the packet – make sure you don’t get the crystals, it’s the powder you’re after. I wrote more about what it is here.
I’m printing out this recipe to use it today…thanks for posting
Hope it works well for you. I’ve been using this laundry powder for a few years now.
Howdy!
Thanks for the recipe. Just so you know, I loved it so much that I shared it on my own blog but linked back to you.
Thanks again
Ash
Thanks. Hope it works as well for you as it does for us.
Can you make laundry liquid without borax???? what can u instead of that?
Yes, you can leave the borax out altogether. There are a few variables that make a difference in regards to the effectiveness of you detergent – the ‘hardness’ of your water is one of them and that varies from region to region. Borax helps soap do it’s cleaning thing esp. in hard water. If you find your laundry liquid isn’t performing as you would like, you can experiment with adding bicarb soda *or* just increasing the ratio of washing soda to soap, which is cheaper and simpler. I use powder because I’m lazy and it’s easier, but the upside of using liquid is that you can add essential oils to create a smell that you like – I add eucalyptus in the softener dispenser straight to the wash when I do nappies or towels.
Hope this helps.
I have been using this washing powder for a few months and I am very happy with it. I use 1 cup of bicarb instead of borax and have still had great results. I use the food processor to grate the bars of sunlight soap and do a double mixture. It usually takes 10 min for start to finish. I find it cost me about the same price as the cheapest washing powder on the market and is much better.
Thanks for dropping by and sharing your laundry powder success! Glad to hear it’s working for you too.