Homemade Laundry Detergent

It's very easy to make your own homemade laundry detergent. While not necessarily more environmentally friendly, it certainly is much cheaper and cleans just as well as store bought detergents. You only need four ingredients:

1. 1 bar Fels Naptha Soap
2. 1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
3. 1/2 cup Washing Soda
4. Water

The first three ingredients are usually stocked in the laundry aisle of your grocery store, Wal*Mart, etc.



Step 1

Grate the soap. I use an old grater kept just for this purpose.

Step 2

Add soap to saucepan and add 6 cups water. Heat over medium/high heat. Stir until dissolved. If you use higher heat, watch CLOSELY because it bubbles up really quickly like milk.

Step 3

Add borax and washing soda and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat.

Step 4

Add about 2 quarts boiling water to a 5 gallon bucket.

Step 5

Add soap mix to bucket and mix well.

Step 6

Add a further 1 gallon of water to the bucket (can be cold water.) Mix again.

Finished product:

Now you can put the lid on the bucket and let it sit overnight. By the next day it will have formed a gel. If it goes more solid you can just stir it so it becomes a chunky gel. Use 1/2 cup per load of laundry.

I use an old powdered washing detergent scoop to measure mine into my washer. I fill the scoop halfway.