Homemade Laundry Detergent

After seeing recipes online and hearing about friends who had gone chemical-free in their homes, I decided to try to make my own laundry detergent. There are thousands of recipes out that that use anywhere from 3-10 ingredients to make laundry soap. Personally, I found some of these “natural” homemade laundry soap recipes to have more than one chemical in their recipes.

After a little research and playing around with various recipes, I came up with a very simple and very inexpensive recipe. It is not 100% natural as I only had Fels-Naptha on hand at the time but substituting for a more natural soap like Dr.Bronner’s bar soap will not affect the recipe. So, if you have decided to try chemical-free living in your home, making your own laundry detergent is the easiest first steps in the transition process.

Why Chemical-Free?

Many ask why chemical-free laundry detergent is so important? It is important to understand that common store-bought laundry detergent is laden with chemicals and fragrances that are linked to allergies, cancer and lung disease. Even fragrance-free brands contain chemicals that are harmful to our bodies.

Fortunately, you can make your own laundry soap sans chemicals that is safe and inexpensive for your family. You only need three basic ingredients to make laundry detergent.

• Washing Soda (I used Arm and Hammer All Natural Super Washing Soda available at most stores)
• Borax (I used 20 Mule Team Borax Detergent Booster available at most grocery stores)
• Fels-Naptha Bar Soap (Available at most grocery stores. You can also try Dr. Bronner’s or other natural, unscented bar soap)

Note: I was able to find all of these ingredients in the laundry aisle at Walmart. You can find natural bar soaps in the soap aisle or online. You can also add a couple drops of essential oil to give the detergent a nice scent. Personally, I rather like the way the laundry detergent smells without extra scents.

What is in the Ingredients?

• Borax is a mineral made up of oxygen, water, sodium, boron.
• Washing Soda (AKA sodium carbonate) is made from salt and limestone.
• Fels-Naptha is a common and long used laundry soap. It contains sodium tallowate, sodium cocoate, and sodium palmate

How to Make Homemade Laundry Detergent

1. Grate the entire bar soap with a food grater until finely ground.
2. In a large bowl, mix 3 cups washing soda, 3 cups Borax and 1 bar grated soap. Make sure you have no lumps in the powder.
3. Store in closed 1-gallon container. I keep mine in an old animal cracker container gallon mason jars. You can also make your own DIY laundry detergent jar
4. Use 1-2 TBSP per load of laundry.

Yields Approx. 250 loads

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