Try-It Tuesday - Homemade Laundry Detergent

For the past several months, I have been using a homemade laundry detergent to wash my clothes. I hate buying liquid detergent because of all the wasteful plastic bottles, and even though the powder detergent comes in recycleable containers, it's a headache to take them to the recycling center every month - not to mention the huge cost.

I experimented with several different recipes from several different sites, but the following is the one I think works the best. Basically, I made a giant bucket of detergent that works incredibly well at a cost of about three cents a load. For comparison’s sake, a jumbo container of Tide at Amazon.com costs $28.99 for 96 loads, or a cost of $0.30 a load. Thus, with each load of this stuff, I’m saving more than a quarter.


Here’s what you need:




- 1 bar of soap (whatever kind you like; I used Jergen's Pure and Natural because I had several bars left over from before I started making my own soap)
- 1 box of washing soda (look for it in the laundry detergent aisle - it comes in an Arm & Hammer box and will contain enough for six batches of this stuff)
- 1 box of borax (one box of borax will contain more than enough for tons of batches of this homemade detergent)
- A five gallon bucket with a lid (or a bucket that will hold more than 15 liters)
- Three gallons of tap water
- A big spoon to stir the mixture with
- A measuring cup
- A knife

Step One: Put about four cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat up on high until it’s almost boiling. While you’re waiting, whip out a knife and start shaving strips off of the bar of soap into the water, whittling it down. Keep the heat below a boil and keep shaving the soap. Eventually, you’ll shave up the whole bar, then stir the hot water until the soap is dissolved and you have some highly soapy water.

Step Two: Put three gallons of hot water (11 liters or so) into the five gallon bucket - the easiest way is to fill up three gallon milk jugs worth of it. Then mix in the hot soapy water from step one, stir it for a while, then add a cup of the washing soda. Keep stirring it for another minute or two, then add a half cup of borax. Stir for another couple of minutes, then let the stuff sit overnight to cool.

And you’re done. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a bucket of gelatinous slime that’s a paler shade of the soap that you used (in my case, it’s a very pale greenish blue). One measuring cup full of this slime will be roughly what you need to do a load of laundry - and the ingredients are basically the same as laundry detergent. Thus, out of three gallons, you’ll get about 48 loads of laundry. If you do this six times, you’ll have used six bars of soap ($0.99 each), one box of washing soda ($2.49 at our store), and about half a box of borax ($2.49 at our store, so $1.25) and make 288 loads of laundry. This comes up to a cost of right around three cents a gallon, or a savings of $70.

I love this stuff and so do my hubby and daughter (who also help with laundry). I still use vinegar occasionally to help with really soiled loads of clothes.