DIY Laundry Detergent

I'm a bit of a hippie. 
It's partly an excuse to do my own thing. 
And it's partly true because I go ahead and do my own thing.

But if you're a hippie, that's expected.  Right?

For mother's day I made my own laundry detergent. 

In all my hippie-ness I am a bit of a tree hugger and am ever aware of my stewardship of our earth.  I've blogged quite a bit about that.

So I decided to give mother earth a gift for mothers day. 

Not only does making your own detergent save you $$, it's also really great for the environment.  More and more companies are becoming greener, but sadly, many of our cleaners are not very earth friendly for our drinking water.

I've been using my DIY Laundry Detergent for a few months now.  And  love it!

Here is the recipe I used:
1 cup Borax
1 cup Super Washing Soda
1 bar Fels Naptha Soap
(ZOTE would also work--see note about ivory below)




I used my food processor to make it.

I have one of those Ninja machines.  It basically turns everything to either a soup or smoothie so I don't use it for much food prep.
I thought it would be perfect for whipping some bars of soap into powder though.



It was! 

I doubled the recipe above and decided to use a bar of ivory soap instead for the second batch.  That's part of the white you see.  The Fels Naptha is yellow.  Ivory worked ok, but it didn't make the same light powder.  I could see it potentially not dissolving as quickly. So I wouldn't use it alone, but mixed in it's nice.  And the scent is too!

Just mix it together with a spoon and you get
 this powder goodness!



For the record, my sister also uses her food processor to make her detergent and it's not a ninja.  You can use a regular hand grater as well if you are worried about putting a bar of soap in your food processor.  But if it can handle ice...you're probably fine...

If you are feeling like a hippie (I mean earth friendly), a double batch fits great in two reused large yogurt containers.

 
I use 1-2 tablespoons depending on the size of the batch and how soiled the laundry is.

Each yogurt container holds enough for 32-64 loads of laundry! 

And it cost about 5 cents a load to make--big time savings there!


And if you are going for cute, I keep mine in this too.



As a bonus, I haven't needed to use a dryer sheet either.

The {little} stuff matters :)

Warning: if you make this soap, you may feel a bit like a hippie.

Enjoy it!




For another laundry secret weapon, check out this post from the archives.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Soo funny I posted the exact same thing a month or so ago we love our fabulous inexpensive laundry soap too!!!!!

Jenn Procarione said...

How well does this work on the HE washing machines? (does it void the warrantee for not using the HE detergent?)

Jedda said...

@Jenn
HE washing machines use less water, which means they need a soap that has less suds. That's what HE detergent is. The good news about this recipe is that it is VERY low suds so it should work just fine :)

Shanny said...

That's it. I'm becoming a hippie, too. The cheapskate in my can't resist!!

Mimi said...

I don't consider myself a hippie, but this looks awesome! And like Shannon, the cheapskate in me can't resist trying it! Thanks for the comment about HE washing machines. I hadn't even considered that, but it's what I have over here.

Jess Suter said...

Have you noticed this concoction aging your clothes any faster? I read on another blog that it lacks the enzymes that conventional detergents have and so shortens the life of clothing.

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