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To make your own low-bubbling detergent for both high efficiency and traditional machines, you need four ingredients: Borax, Washing Soda, Soap, and Water
Borax and Washing soda can usually be found in the laundry aisle of any good grocery.
Pretty much any soap is suitable for laundry use, however, some soaps are so GOOD or so EXPENSIVE that it would silly to buy them for laundry. If you aren’t making your own lard or Crisco soap, or don’t have a bunch of old soap bits lying around, Ivory (25 cents a bar at Walmart for the 16 pack) is your best bet for versatility and price. Fels-naptha and Zote are also fine options. Zote may be as economical as Ivory or homemade since it comes in such a large bar, but I haven’t found it in my area.
Kirk’s Castille is JUST FINE for laundry, but at 1$ a bar, I would never buy it for that purpose. However, I did buy it to make shampoo, but because of the ADDED EVIL GLYCERIN, it makes my hair GREASY, so for our demonstration this afternoon, Kirks will be the LAUNDRY bar. (Grrrr.)
Powdered Laundry Soap:
2 cups finely grated soap (Ivory, Fels Naptha, Zote, homemade, or a combination)
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
Mix and store in a coffee can or what have you. Use 1-2 T per load.**
If you intend to use this detergent DRY, then I highly recommend that you buzz it in the coffee grinder or food processor to get the soap really fine.
**NOTE: There is a great degree of debate about this laundry powder and others like it. Some find that the laundry comes out clean as a whistle using the usual 1-2T per load. Others find that their clothes come out smelly and dingy. Here is the MAGICAL solution. Because of water differences, soil differences, and washer sizes, it will take SOMEWHERE between 1TBSP and 1/2 cup of this detergent. (Mine is 6T for a super-size white load) BUT, once you find your magic amount, it will be the cleanest, whitest laundry you ever had.
Depending on WHY you are choosing to make your own, this may or may not discourage you from continuing to use it. If, for example, you are doing it to be better for the environment, more self-sufficient, reduce chemicals in the home, or because you hate shopping–it won’t affect you. However, if you are doing this solely for the purpose of being frugal, you may find that your perfect amount of powder exceeds the 5 cents a load that you can squeeze out of a wholesale club bulk buy.
Now, onto the liquid. I prefer to use the liquid version of this recipe because I’m obsessed with undissolved particles. If you plunk a wad of the dry in a bucket and stir for a while, you will notice that it doesn’t all dissolve. That bugs me. So, I PRE-dissolve it.
Liquid Laundry Soap–
2 cups finely grated soap
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
water and bucket (> 1 gallon)
1. If you tried the powder version and want to switch that batch to liquid, cook it all in the saucepan together over medium until the soap melts OR if your ingredients are still separate, melt the soap over medium in a few cups of water and add the rest right after you take it off the heat and stir to dissolve.
2. Pour in pail and add enough HOT water to equal one gallon. Stir well.
3. Let set up overnight.
4. Stir. It will be a soupy gel.
5. Use between 1/4c and 2 cups per load. (**See above note)
This stuff also works well as a pre-treater. I’ve found it especially effective with those phantom water drip looking circles that appear on my t-shirts. I’ve also used it to scrub the bathroom and in my dishwasher in a pinch.
Ivory
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I made this use the liquid gel way, grated the soap and boiled it 25% of the water and then when it was fully melted (cream soup consistancy) and then added another 25% of the water (hot tap) to the washing soda and borax mixture…then half of the melted soap, 25% more hot water, the rest of the melted soap and then I added the last 25% of the water to the empty pot, swished it around and then added it to the mixture, added 1/2 cup 3x All laundry soap and it is perfect! The consistancy is like gravy that has cooled in fridge. Love it! Double batch as follows:
1. Grate 2 Fels Naptha, add to 2 quarts hot tap water in a sauce pan, heating over medium low heat until all soap is melted
2. In a 2 gallon container add 2 cups Washing Soda and 2 cups Borax
to 2 quarts hot tap water
3. add half of melted Fels Naptha & water mixture
3 then add 2 quarts hot tap water
4. then add rest of melted Fels Naptha mix
5. then rinse pot with final 2 quarts of hot tap water
6. add 1 cup of 3X All and mix everything together.
7. Let mixture rest, mixing once at the 2 hour point and then again at 4 hours.
8. Let set up for 8 hours -Perfection! Thank you so much for the inspiration!
“Phantom water drop circles”- yes! I have those and have never been able to figure out what is causing them. Do you know? No one else that I’ve talked to has had this problem. I picked up some Zote at Big Lots today and I’m going to make some laundry detergent this weekend. Thanks so much!
I have those circles too.
I may try this. I always buy the no prefume detergent, but this sounds better.
Kathy
I was using a similar liquid recipe for about 6 months. At first, we were really happy with it, and our clothes seemed clean and white. But after several months, everything seemed to have a film on it and things like towels were no longer absorbent. Has anyone else had this problem?
To get my soap “finely grated,” and to avoid having to use my coffee grinder after grating it, I just used my microplane to grate the soap. It grated the soap into super fine powder! Like parmesan cheese out of the green topped can fine powder
I had initially planned to do the dry recipe – so this would have worked great as the soap was the same consistency as the washing powder. It would have mixed nicely, and melted wonderfully in the washer. However, I decided at the last minute to do the liquid version, and melting it in the water took hardly any time at all. Microplane for the win!
Am interested in and looking for ways to save money as well as improve on ways to get laundry cleaner I’m definitely ‘in’ – seems when I go to the store to buy soap for laundry, liquid soap for washing hands, etc., all of it has significantly increased in price each time I buy it!!!
I’ve started adding vinegar to the towels and white clothes and occasionally to the coloreds…it gets stains out and makes the clothes softer…an inexpensive way to get laundry cleaner if you don’t want to use bleach. I also clean bathroom fixtures, the floor, etc., with vinegar…however, it cannot be used on wood floors.
Just another point – if you want to “set” the color of a pair of new jeans, add vinegar to the load – it prevents fading with future washings.
Will appreciate all tips, suggestions, ideas, thoughts, PLUS instructions for “how to do” all of it.
Thank you – Emelda Dunston Galarneau
I have a couple of bottles of bodywash that smell good but make my skin feel a little dry. Could I use it for the liquid version of this instead of grated soap?
Probably, but I’ve never tried it.
Emelda ~ I’ve used vinegar on my wood floors for the past 2 years. 1/4 cup to 2 gallons of water, works great! I have found it to not only work great, but leave my floors looking great also.
I made this exactly as the directions said but all of my ingredients are just sitting on the top and it’s just yellow liquid on the bottom. Could you tell me what you think I done wrong or how I can fix it. Thank you.
Hello, I’ve got a question for you! I’ve been to several grocery stores in my town and cannot find Arm & Hammer washing soda. Next to the Borax, there’s always a big box of Arm & Hammer baking soda, in every store I’ve been to. What happens if I use the baking soda? Or, where can I find washing soda?? I found it on amazon.com, but it’d be really nice to buy it locally. Any help or advice would be so appreciated, thanks in advance!!
I discovered, by accident, that using fresh soap (Ivory) yields coarser chunks when grating. Having used the “liquid” homemade laundry soap recipe for the past couple of years, I decided to try the dry version because I love the idea of a quart Mason jar versus the 5 gallon pail recipe I’ve used. When grating my 9+ months old (and sat through a dry Minnesota winter) soap, I found I easily achieved the desired fine texture! It’s been working great, even in cold water washes.
It’s just not the same thing. Washing soda will burn your hand if you hold it too long, but not baking soda, so it’s not as strong of a cleaner.
Heat it all back up until it melts and hit it with a stick blender ever half hour until it cools.
I have been making detergent for over a year now using a similar recipe. It says to let the mixture sit overnight. The next day when I open the cover of the bucket the whole thing looks like one big gob of jello. I just take a big spoon and start mixing and then use my hand mixer and dissolve all the globs in the bucket. I add a little more hot water to help mix it better and then I put it into an old detergent bottle to use it. I know that if I left it in the bucket I would use too much, the bottle’s cover is a good measurement for our the type of water we have here in Maine.
For the people that have problems with the detergent not working after a few months. You most likely have buildup. I would suggest using Fels-Naptha as the bar soap. It dissolves & rinses clean much better than other bar soap. But using vinegar in the liquid softener cup of your washing machine (or Downey ball) should take care of that. You could use 1:1 white vinegar:water, but I am lazy and use straight white vinegar. It “cuts” through any soap residue. Also, wash in warm every once in a while if you only wash in cold. Or take a break every few months or so and use Tide for a week. But I never had build-up issues so maybe your water is harder? If so, I’m not sure which ingredient to increase in the recipe… or add. I hope this helps some. If you make the dry recipe, I suggest opening a few bars at a time of your bar soap for a few weeks or months. It grates MUCH better and Fels-Naptha crumbles into a fine powder when grated on the small part of a box grater when dried out. I use 2T of my dry detergent per load but I have a 4yr old boy that gets into dirt, paint, grass, flour, worms, rocks, etc.
I also rub the bar of Fels-Naptha on stains as a pre-treater by wetting the bar as the washer fills up.
I’ve been making my own liquid detergent for a couple of years now – love the savings, the simplicity of making it, etc. Except…I too have those phantom “water drip” type spots on some of our clothing! Anyone have ANY ideas? I’ve been using Dial Basics body soap (buy it 3/$1 at Dollar Tree and it’s fragrance free/hypoallergenic), so thought it might be better to switch to an actual laundry soap. Was put off by the price of Fels-Naptha on Amazon, but, by pure chance, found some bars of Zote at a local Asian market for 99 cents a bar!!!
How much water should I use to make my already powdered detergent to liquid?
Found A&H Washing Soda and Borax at Ace Hardware in our small town (4000 pop.) These 2, alone came to over $11, soap (castile hemp from Trader Joes) was over $3 (I know I could go cheaper, but I’m already over spending w/soda and borax). So, total was about $15, which is close to what I pay for A&H, 200 load laundry detergent. Probably could find cheaper @ Amazon, but won’t need to buy for a loooong time. I could find Fels nap, but don’t trust it isn’t petro based.
On the subject of the “water drip” type spots on clothing… I haven’t independently verified this, but my friend (who has much more chemistry knowledge than I) claims that it’s b/c the formula of the detergent has a fabric softener effect. She claims that these spots should be able to be removed by wetting the fabric and rubbing laundry bar soap on the stain (which is the recommended treatment for fabric softener stains, according to several sources I found through google).
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