Readers! Would you like to be featured in my eco-friendly tip of the week? Send me a note. I’d LOVE to feature you. This week’s eco-friendly tip is brought to you by my friend Melanie. She calls this “Homemade Laundry Detergent you can trust!”
It is so easy to make your own laundry detergent. I prefer to keep mine in a solid form as it lasts longer and is easier for the kids to use. I much rather scoop out a couple TBSP of dry powder than to have to cook down my soap into a liquid form.
I have seen numerous recipes online for homemade laundry soap, and once I tried this one I just kept with it. I feel it does a good job cleaning; the soaps all dissolve if I use hot water to start, and the clothing smells nice.
There are 3 ingredients in this recipe.
I was able to find all 3 ingredients between my local Walmart and Grocery stores. If for some reason you can’t locate them locally, they do sell them online at amazon and other places but you pay quite a bit more and have shipping tacked on to it.
Borax
Washing Soda
Fels Naptha
We use a cheese grater and shred up the Fels Naptha into small pieces. I typically give this job to my 10 year old and give him a little cash for his hard work! I mix all 7 bars of grated Fels Naptha, the entire box of Borax and the entire box of washing soda into a dishpan tub or 5 gallon bucket.
You only need 2 TBSP of detergent per load. I start the load with hot water and add the detergent to make sure it gets thoroughly mixed in and dissolved before adding clothes. I have seen recipes where they have decreased the fels naptha to 3 bars or less.
I prefer to have more because I really like the smell and for only $1 a bar I think it is worth it. I have used my own homemade goat milk soap in this recipe as well when I had extra. We even one time made what we called pioneer soap with just tallow and water and oils and that worked out nicely.
This will not be a bubbly wash. Detergent Companies add chemicals to increase the suds, when suds aren’t what clean. People associate bubbles with clean, though that is completely false.
Why go to all this work to make your own laundry soap anyway?
1. It is very economical to make your own detergent. I wandered through the aisle at the grocery the other day and was amazed at the price of detergents!!
Total price is probably under $13 for the batch which will wash at least 100 loads.
2. Less toxins in your load. With only using 1-2 TBSP per load you are reducing the use of the ingredients by a significant amount, making less chemicals being used.
3. Eco Friendly. Less non-essential chemicals. No extra fragrances, or dyes, or anything that laundry detergent companies add to sell their products. I would say that makes homemade laundry detergent much more eco-friendly. Plus the ingredients all come in recyclable packaging!
4. Support USA! All of these ingredients are made in America!
Such a simple recipe, takes such a small amount of time and you will be set up with detergent for months!
A Year of Jubilee Reviews with an assortment of reviews, giveaways, and life stories. Melanie is a homeschooling Mama of 6 blessings, ranging from ages 4 to 17.. toddler to teen!
She has been through the ages and stages and they just keep on coming. With years of experience under her belt she wanted to start sharing some of the insights she has found in raising her 5 boys and 1 girl through blogging.
She has loved writing since her first journalism class in high school and is excited to have found a niche to share her heart.
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