They're all over Facebook and Pinterest nowadays, these recipes for homemade laundry detergent and such. I am always interested in ways to save money and stretch the budget a little further, so when I first read one of the recipes and knew it was perfectly doable, I got super excited! I told The Hubster that night that I planned to mix up this concoction and see just how well it cleaned our clothes. We've been complaining about the price of laundry detergent and how much we're spending on it each month, so I knew this would be a good idea to him, too.
And it was! : ) At least until he saw that it was a powder. We have never used powder detergent since we've been married because many years ago, when he used Tide powder to do his laundry, it gummed up his machine so badly that he ended up with a very flooded basement. :( He reminded me of this little episode, so I put aside the idea of homemade laundry detergent and just hoped that someone would come up with a great homemade liquid detergent sometime soon.
I. LOVE. FACEBOOK. : )
One of my FB friends had just mixed up some homemade detergent and posted about it. I commented saying that if anyone had a recipe for a liquid version, I would really like the recipe. Lo and behold, within a couple of hours someone posted a recipe for me! YAY!
While I haven't had a chance to mix this up and give it a try, I thought I'd go ahead and post it in case someone else out there would like to give it a shot. I'll be picking up these ingredients soon and making my own batch, but if you try it before then, please post your results! The sweet lady who posted it for me says that her niece swears by it. : )
Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent
Save and rinse out an old laundry
detergent bottle for this:
4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax
(All these items are available in the laundry aisle.)
- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (It will gel.)
-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 load
- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (It will gel.)
-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 load
*Notes:
Those with sensitive skin can
use Dove soap but the Fels-Naptha is an awesome
stain remover. Keep an extra bar next to the washer to pre-treat.
You can add essential oils for
scent, if you wish.
This stuff gets super thick and
it looks kind of gross but it works. You can add a little dawn
to it for grease or use dawn to spot
treat for grease and it works even if you have already washed and dried the
item.
I use regular fabric softener
but I pour half into another container and then fill both with water. It works just as well and lasts twice as
long.
