DIY Laundry Detergent

A couple of years ago, I became a mother for the third time and realized I was finally going to have to start budgeting, being frugal, etc. The most obvious place to start (for me) was laundry. I have three active, messy boys who change at least twice a day. My husband is a mechanic so his work clothes are especially dirty. Like many others, I took to the internet to find a recipe for homemade laundry detergent. Here is my recipe and hints to make everything easier.

Ingredients:
1 bar of soap, fully grated
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)

Tools:
1 large pot (like what you would make stew in)
1 clean 5-gallon bucket WITH LID

1 wooden spoon (it can be any spoon, this just works better for the slippery parts for me)
your stove

Directions:
1. Fill your pot about 3/4 of the way with hot water and put it

over a medium-low flame. Add soap shavings and stir frequently,

but gently. DO NOT ALLOW MIXTURE TO BOIL.

2. While your mixture is on the stove, take your clean bucket

and fill it a little more than half way with HOT water. Cover

the bucket with the lid.

3. When the soap shavings are completely dissolved, turn off

the stove. SLOWLY pour the soapy mixture into the large

bucket. Mix the water and soapy liquid together GENTLY.

Cover the bucket again with the lid.

4. In the same pot used to "cook" the soapy mixture, add clean

hot water to about 2/3 full. Add the Borax, then add the

Washing Soda. Stir until both powders are completely

dissolved.

5. SLOWLY pour the new mixture of Borax and Washing Soda

into the large bucket. Now SLOWLY add more hot water

to the bucket until the liquid is about 2" below the top.

Mix everything gently and thoroughly. Put the lid on the

bucket, and make sure it is well sealed.

6. Put the bucket away overnight, preferably somewhere cool

and out of the way. I put it in the garage, right by the door.

You could use your laundry room, pantry, or whatever. The

next day, VOILA! You have your own laundry detergent!

Now, the type of bar soap you use will affect your detergent. I have found the Zote, Ivory, Fels Naptha, and Kirk's Castille soap work best. I did this with Irish Spring one time (DH loves the scent), and let's just say I had to go right back to the kitchen to make another batch of detergent. So, stay away from oily or perfumed "fancy" soaps because they won't work.

If you're like me, you're annoyed because you don't know what bar size is right. Should I get the 6 oz. one or the 10 oz. bar? RELAX. The first few times you make the detergent, give yourself room to compare recipe changes (trust me, you will tweak it to suit your own family's needs once you get comfortable making it). I happen to use the extra large, pink, 14.1 oz. Zote bar mostly because I like the fragrance and because our water is just hard enough to need a little extra soap to get stuff clean. Most recipes call for the regular-sized bar soap that is about six to eight ounces. Just buy a regular-sized bar of soap - whatever you consider "regular" is fine.

Also, the Borax tends to clump into fist-sized, hard rocks. I strongly suggest using your hands or a wooden utensil to break up the large clumps of Borax before trying to dissolve them in the pot. Similarly, break up the Washing Soda before dissolving it in water. It makes for a lot less stirring - both in the pot and the large bucket. Many recipes skip my extra "pre-dissolving" step and just add the powders directly to the soapy mixture in the bucket. I made my detergent that way at first, but I find it's really hard to get things mixed well with such a large quantity. It's difficult to maneuver in that big bucket, and I don't know about anyone else but I don't own any giant-sized spoons. Plus, I couldn't really tell if the powders had dissolved all the way without getting all soapy. Pre-dissolving the powders in water I was going to add to the bucket anyway just seemed a lot easier. And it does not affect the detergent in any way.

One small side note: I know that WASHING Soda can be kind of hard to find. I used to buy it at my local grocery store (FoodMaxx), but they aren't carrying it anymore. You can buy it online, but it's a slightly heavy box so shipping can get expensive relative to the frugality of this recipe. Try other grocery stores. I've seen it at some of the newer Walmarts in town, it's a hit-or-miss endeavor but well worth it.

When the detergent is ready, it's usually congealed into one big, soft, jellyish lump. I usually use my hands to break this up and really mix the detergent well. Then I put the detergent into old containers of liquid detergent. I like to put it in the old containers because it's easier to handle in pouring and putting away. The big bucket kind of gets in my way in my tiny laundry space.

When actually using your detergent, you will have to "break it up" on the day you do laundry because the mixture tends to congeal somewhat. This is another reason I like reusing old detergent containers. They are easy to shake vigorously - rather than getting my hands soapy in a big bucket every time I do laundry... which is almost every day in my house. Many recipes suggest using 1/2 cup per load of laundry, and this is fine. However, instead of using a measuring cup, I just use the dispensers on my containers because it turns out they are about 1/2 cup capacity.

Your five-gallon wonder detergent will yield about 150 loads of laundry! For those of us on a tight budget, let's do the math:

1 box Borax = $2.98 @ Walmart for 76 ounces (4 lb.)

1 box Washing Soda = $2.99 @ Grocery Store for 55 ounces (3 lb. 7 oz.)

1 bar Pink ZOTE Bar Soap = $0.99 @ FoodMaxx for 14.1 ounces

With my recipe, I will get almost seven batches of detergent from a single box of Washing Soda. Since it is the ingredient which will run out before the Borax, it will be the limiting factor in our calculations. Using that as our starting point:

7 batches of detergent = $2.98 + $2.99 + 7 ($0.99) = $12.90

150 loads per batch of detergent = 150 * 7 batches = 1050 loads of laundry

COST FOR EACH LOAD OF LAUNDRY = $12.90 / 1050 = $0.012

That means it only costs me ONE PENNY to do a load of laundry! And that's not even considering that I have another two or three batches of laundry I could do with the Borax I still have left! Other recipes (and your own particular water supply) may use less Washing Soda. I use a large bar of soap, other recipes use smaller quantities - couple the smaller bar with a good sale or some coupons... You could easily pay less than a penny per load.

Now, for the skeptics out there... As I said earlier, my husband is a mechanic. He can come home pretty grimy sometimes. I also have a teenager, a kindergartener, and a toddler - each with his own wonderful twist on DIRTY. To complicate things further, my toddler has super-sensitive skin. I was sure I was going to have to get three different detergents: industrial-strength for DH, normal for teen & kindergartener, and something ridiculously expensive but super gentle for my fair baby. I. was. wrong.

For my DH's work clothes, the detergent works just fine. He's not a big fan of the fragrance, and he swears his clothes need "extra" cleaning - for this reason, I supplement only his work clothes with 1 cup Pine-Sol. It's a trick he learned from his mother, and I apparently can't break him of this habit. Still, I expected my humble little DIY detergent was going to be put to shame with the work clothes. Not so. Unless something is extremely greasy (oil spill or whatever), my detergent takes care of normal grime and grit from the car shop.

And my youngest with the skin that breaks out in hives at the hint of any product that could be economical? Just fine and dandy with this detergent. His skin does well - maybe because the pink Zote is formulated for delicates. Maybe because his little Mexican tooshie likes "Mexican" soap. Maybe because his skin took pity on my budget in this one area (Mustela baby cream is EXPENSIVE and the only thing that works for him). Whatever the reason, this detergent is sensitive-skin-friendly.

So!... Buying the ingredients is cheap. Mixing the detergent takes about 15 minutes total. And you end up paying about ONE PENNY PER LOAD! I love DIY detergent!

Note: I have a friend who wanted to make this detergent, but she has very hard water in her area. Arm&Hammer also has a powdered Water Softener, usually found next to the Washing Soda, that can be added to this recipe. Just add to the same pot with the other powders during that step in the process. You'll have to adjust the amount to the level of hardness of your own water, but it's well worth the effort!