Homemade Laundry Detergent

I bought the ingredients weeks ago to make my homemade laundry detergent but I still had my expensive store bought laundry detergent to use up...well last night I finally got the chance to use my homemade soap! I'm so excited to blog about this because it's seriously the coolest thing I've done in months.

What possessed me to even want to try to make homemade laundry detergent? Well, I honestly don't know. I'm trying to live a "greener" more frugal life and buying expensive store bought laundry detergent in huge plastic containers isn't really part of that life style. That and the fact that it was summer vacation and I was bored might have played a role too.

What all do you need to make it? Only a few ingredients, most of which you probably have in your house right now.

• 1 cup of washing soda (It's found in the laundry section at your grocery store. I use Arm & Hammer)
• 1/2 cup of borax (You can buy this at Wal-Mart)
• 1 bar of soap (Whatever is cheap, I used Ivory)

You take your bar of soap and grate it until it's a fine powder (I bought a grate at a thrift store for 50 cents to use just for making detergent). You then put it in a container or glass jar (recycle, I used an empty yogurt container that I washed up) along with the washing soda and borax. Put the lid on and shake for 2-3 minutes, until everything is all mixed up.

At this point, you can check it out and see if it looks like a fine powder. I thought mine could use an extra mix so I threw it all in the blender and mixed it for a few seconds. That did the trick! When I went to go do a load of laundry I started up the washer then added my 2 Tablespoons of the detergent and also a scoop of a generic brand of oxyclean (I use this even when I used my expensive detergent). This will make about 2 cups, which is roughly 16 full loads of laundry. If you only have a small load, don't use the full 2 TBL. You could always double, triple, or even quadruple this batch if you do a lot of laundry.

One big difference in homemade detergent over store bought is the lack of bubbles. Mine had no bubbles so this detergent would be great in an energy efficient front loading machine! Many people think that bubbles is what gets your clothes clean...WRONG! I was scared that my clothes were going to smell like Ivory soap, but after they were done in the washer they had the lightest scent. You really couldn't smell anything. I put them in the dryer and used my normal amount of dryer sheets and they came out just like any other load of laundry I've done before. ***Tip***When putting clothes in the dryer, make sure you shake each article of clothing out. This cuts down on drying time which will save you money!

I recommend making a batch of homemade detergent for your family. It would be a fun project with the kids! This could even be a science fair project if you have older children. Another fun idea would be having a Green Living Party. Invited a bunch of friends over and have everyone make homemade laundry detergent and other cleaning products (I plan on blogging about homemade cleaning products later).