How To Make Homemade Laundry Detergent
Okay frugal moms, are you ready to learn how to cut expenses and get those bills down? If you answered yes then you’re ready to learn how to make laundry detergent, or homemade laundry soap… whatever you want to call it! I actually posted a blog on this like a year ago, so go take a peek if you want to take a trip down memory lane with me! It’s worth checking out because I do the financial breakdown of the homemade ingredients and how much money you save.
Spoiler allert: Making laundry detergent saves me over $200 a year… no joke this stuff rules
How To Make Homemade Laundry Detergent
Laundry Soap Recipe
1 bar soap (shaved with cheese grater)
1 quart of water
½ cup borax
1 cup washing soda
3 gallons water
*Optional- Several drops of essential oils
Video Transcript How To Make Homemade Laundry Detergent
Hello this is Joquena with Modern Homemakers and today I’m going to show you how to make laundry detergent laundry soap whatever you want to call it. Laundry detergent has chemicals laundry soap doesn’t. That’s kind of my differentiation there. This is super easy I’ve been doing it for years it saves a lot of money and a lot of trips to the store. You need a pan, I recommend getting a giant pan, not only do I melt my soap n this pan, I store it in it. It’s the perfect size I don’t even have to measure water anymore. Get a grater a bar block of cheese , ok soap but it’s gonna feel like cheese by the time you get done with it. Washing soda and borax. That’s it, and some water. That’s all you need.
The first thing you’re going to do is grate your soap. If you want exact measurements there’s a link at the bottom to modern homemakers. So if you’re smart you’ll enlist the help of older children or your husband. I’m not fortunate enough to have older children yet so what I had to do is bat my eyelashes at my husband, try it with me. Get’s the job done and I didn’t have to do it. If you have to do it yourself at least go sit in front of the TV, put your feet up and enjoy yourselves.
Add a quart of water, put on the stove and you don’t have to stir constantly, but keep on until they dissolve. As you can see it’s dissolved. While it’s still warm add a cup of washing soda and a half a cup of borax. Stir until dissolved and then we’re gonna add some more water. I would say doing this saves me over 200 dollars a year. I did some math on my website, I don’t like doing math I only do it for saving money and this is a big money saver that doesn’t take very much time. Add 3 gallons of water. I know my pan so I’m going to not measure.
One of the reasons I first started doing the laundry soap wasn’t even just the money, although that was a nice reason for me. I was having a lot of health problems and I started researching that all the fragrances and dyes and stuff can have adverse effects on your health, so one of the first things I did was start cutting out cleaning chemicals, and positive benefit save on the dineros. I couldn’t go back. I was always having to put laundry detergent in my cart , I still use like stain treatments and air fresheners occasionally like in the laundry like fabric softeners and whatever but I’m just as quick to throw in some vinegar in a load as a fabric softener. If you want to have a special smell I recommend you do it on a per load basis but you can add some essential oils in here. They’re just so pricy and most of my loads I don’t even care. I’m more likely to save some tea tree oil for the pee soaked bed sheets from a kid or something that you really want to get smell out of , or diapers.
One more reason you need to make this, it may not seem very convenient to be grating soap, but I find it is more convenient then having to find space in an overflowing garbage for one more giant container or to have to haul that down to the recycling. And as an environmental side note if you stop having to buy all these giant chemical containers you will be amazed at how much less stuff is in your garbage can. We look down the street and everyone else has theirs like overflowing and ours fits. You can look at what it looks like right now, and I’ll try to come back later when it turns into a thick snot. As a side note if you’re using like an olive oil or natural type soap, like I’ve made my own soap and that doesn’t ever really turn into the thick snot it stays runnier because it has more olive oil in it. If you’re using not a commercial type soap, if you’re using a more holistic type of soap don’t expect it to turn into the snot and if I want to go start a load of laundry right now I can or you can wait until it firms up. I have a front loading machine I’ve used it with that, I’ve used it with a top loader it totally works.
I find I use more of this than I would a store bought for a front loader so look at your 1x 2x 3x and I still pretty much use a ladle full which is like ½ a cup to ¾ a cup. But, I like to really fill my loads in the washer, probably a little too much so I still use that amount. But if I were only putting a few things in there if I didn’t have more laundry than I could ever keep up I would use less. I’m going to add some vinegar to this load to neutralize some stinkyness!
Hi Joquena!
I am just sooo impressed with your blog! You are doing a great thing. I love this one…I have been pinning some recipes for the DIY laundry detergent from Pinterest……but I am a real “show me” person so I loved the video. We missed you Sunday in church. We pray you are feeling better. I enjoyed watching Travis put up the clothes line too….you are both very informative as well as entertaining. I will look forward to watching more as I get time….wish I had time to learn to crochet. You do beautiful work. You should get an Etsy store. I believe you would do well. If you have a FB page please send me a friend request. The church has one too….just wanted to say hello and keep up the good work 🙂 Luv & ((hugs)) ~Pastor C~
Thanks Cecilia! We have so much fun with it 🙂
Ahhh, thanks for the wonderful comment. I love getting comments 🙂 I’m a big show me type of person too, and I don’t mean a diagram! I just sent you a facebook request and should see you tomorrow.
can you give us a tour of that awesome craft shelf you have.!!! how did you put the ribbon on the rod AWESOMEEEEEEE
I’ve actually been considering doing a craft room tour for a while but that means I’d have to clean my messy craft room haha! I’ll try to do a video on the ribbon rod too (spoiler alert) it’s super easy 🙂