How to Make Home Detergent?

[heydude]

What is the best/cheapest way to do laundry? Baking soda? How do you make laundry detergent and bounce?!

[BayouGirl]

I make it up in gallon batches using:

1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
1/3 cup of dawn
I get about a quart of hot water and mix in the washing soda and the borax until it dissolves. You may have to add extra hot water. Once it is disolved, add in the 1/3 cup of Dawn Dishwashing liquid. Put into gallon jug ( I saved all my old laundry soap bottles) and use about a capful per load.

There are many versions out there. Most use Washing Soda an Borax and they vary on the amounts used as well as whether they add in grated soap, grated and melted Fels Naptha (a laundry soap in bar form) or even Dawn dishwashing liquid.

I have experimented with many batches and variations. I settled on the version I have at the top with the Washing Soda, Borax and Dawn. This is the one that only takes seconds to make. The amount of money you save depends on which recipe that you use. I have seen recipes that only add 3 tablespoons of washing soda, 3 tbsp of borax and 2 tbsp of (grated) fels naptha or ivory.

[Mrs-M]

Awesome recipe, BayouGirl! Thanks a bunch!

[BayouGirl]

I have put a lot of time researching this topic and reading a lot of people's experiences with it so I will pass the important info on here.

As for softener, many people recommend vinegar because it will get out soap residue and leave clothes clean. You would think that would leave the clothes spelling like vinegar but it doesn't. My friend who is a nurse swears by it. Other people do as well.

"My Laundry Soap Recipe" (1 cup washing soda, 1 cup borax,1/3 cup of Dawn Dishwashing liquid) is based upon my experimentation. I find that some recipes simply don't have enough of the washing soda or borax. Those may cost pennies to make but if they aren't working, then it is a waste. Some people have said that their recipe stopped working or it turned bad but those tend to be people who make it 5 gallons at a time, use the smallest amounts of ingredients or had something go wrong with the grated soap.

I like the Dawn recipe because it mixes easiest and quickest. It doesn't require buying/finding Fels Naptha, (which can be difficult), or Ivory Soap and then grating and melting the grated soap in hot water which requires a LOT of stirring. My recipe does come out a bit thinner because it doesn't have the grated soap in it. Some people report that the grated soap mixtures come out too thick and goopy.

I did purchase the Fels Naptha so I could experiment with it. I found it easy to grate (or chop) but melting it took some time to do. Still, I wanted to see if adding it to the mix would make "My Recipe" thicker. It did add a bit of thickness but I would say that it isn't worth the trouble of having to grate it and dissolve it (for me), especially since I can only buy it at a store 25 miles from home.

Many people are concerned with how their laundry will smell and want a laundry soap that smells good. Some people report adding some essential oils to the mix adds fragrance but I have NOT experimented with that.

I made up 5 gallons of the laundry soap at a time, each batch in it's own container. I had some commercial laundry soap liquid left over so I decided to put 1 cap of the commercial laundry liquid into each gallon. My reasoning was that it would add some fragrance to the batch as well as add some preservatives to keep them from going bad. So if I do that in the future, I would call it a laundry soap extender rather than a laundry soap recipe.

You can easily adjust the ingredients depending on what your main objective is for making the laundry soap. People make their own laundry soap for many reasons such as, saving money, chemical sensitivities, phosphate free issues, etc. The recipe I use is Phosphate Free.

Here are some useful links along this topic.
This link has 10 different recipes for making laundry soap. You can make liquid or DRY powdered laundry soap.
http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/

Here is a website that has a recipe for laundry softener using vinegar and hair conditioner. There are lots of helpful comments and variations and experiences.
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/homemade-fabric-softener-finally.html

Recipes for making various things using Dawn Dishwashing Liquid. You can use Dawn to make window cleaner,make tub and shower cleaner, make stuff to unclog your toilet, ice packs, lubricant for squeaky hinges, etc .
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/05/original-blue-dawn-its-not-just-for-dishes-anymore.html

[heydude]

How much would you say this costs / compared to buying it?

[Tussiemussies]

I have made this a lot in the past and have always used the Fels Naptha soap which I have to because I have a front-loading HE machine and you cannot have a lot of bubbles in it, Fels Naptha does not suds up too much but was originally, quite a long time go, used for spot treating clothes so it is really great at cleaning them and getting the oils out too and leaves a light scent.

We are moving to where we will have a septic tank and I have read in three places not to use any form of a powder cleaner since it will block up the leech field. I only made the detergent dry once and have made the liquid version all the other times. I have large 5 gal. Buckets, and would make it to stay in there. Once you make the liquid form I have read on at least one sight to keep it somewhat warm for24 hours so that is what I did, kept it in the kitchen and placed the buckets very close together.

The only problem I have ever had is that I use a lot more than what they recommend. Since I have the large capacity washer that will fit 9 pairs of jeans in it I would put in one cup , I know that is probably overkill but I just can't seem to wrap it around my head so to say, that 3TBLS will get all of those clothes clean.

Whether I like it or not I have to make this now because of the new house septic has to have no phosphate detergent. Fels is no phosphate although it has perfume and dyes in it. Someday I would like to be able to afford the all natural soaps that are out there like Charlie's or Seventh Generation but we just cannot put that in our budget right now.

There are areas in the sea that they call "dead zones" where nothing will grow. They said in one article I read that they believe that one is just about the size of NJ, and the reason being is phosphorous.

I just recently did a lot of reading about laundry detergent due to our move...hope I didn't bore you with all the details.

P.S. I think the blue Dawn is non-phosphorous too but not definite. It sure does clean off oil as they washed off all those poor animals with it from the oil spill awhile back...