How To Make Homemade Laundry Detergent

October 24, 2024 By Elizabeth 29 Comments

Interested in making homemade laundry detergent? If you’re looking for organic laundry soaps on the market, it’s possible they are not as organic as their labels indicate. Conventional laundry soaps can have negative effects on your health, including skin and throat irritation and carcinogenicity. You never truly know what ingredients could be omitted from a tag despite your attempt to make an informed decision. So, why not make your own product? Detergent is so pricey anyway. It’s depletes so quickly, especially in the case of families who wash together. What an expense! But how about taking an alternate route from buying detergent at the local grocery store? We think it’s important to always keep yourself in check in terms of chemicals that are in contact with our bodies which is why we thought homemade laundry detergent would be a great DIY project for you to try at home. Hope you like it!

How to Make Homemade Laundry Detergent

We found all the ingredients we needed to make homemade laundry soap at our local grocery store. Using these simple ingredients, you can have DIY laundry detergent like ours in under an hour. (via DIY Natural, click here for full tutorial)

Supplies and Ingredients You Will Need:

1 cup of Borax
1 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (make sure it’s not baking soda!)
1 bar of shaved soap ( you may use Fels Naptha or Ivory; the latter is much easier to find).
1 Grater
1 Glass Bowl
1 Wooden Spoon

Step 1.

Shave the bar of soap. Note: if you own a food processor feel free to use it since it can save you lots of time. It is, of course, not essential to the tutorial.

Step 2.

Add 1 cup of Borax to the glass bowl along with the grated soap bar. Mix all the ingredients together very well for optimal results.

Step 3.

Store the mix away in a jar and save a tablespoon beside your soap. About 2 tbs of the detergent per load should do it!

We hope you enjoyed our super easy tutorial on simple powder laundry soap. What do you think of our post? Let us know in the comments section below and we will do our best to make more posts like it. Have you made laundry soap before? Share your experience in the comments section below and make sure to tell us how this project worked out for you. Sign up for our mailing list to see more great DIY craft projects like this along with other really awesome recipes and so much more! Thanks for checking us out.

Do you like homemade products? For other great DIY product ideas, check out our most recent posts:

Be sure to like us on Facebook (button below) so you can be the first to know about latest project updates as well as great DIY articles.

Pin It so you can come back to it and follow us on Pinterest to get latest project pins.

Let us know in the comments below! Your feedback matters. The more interest we get in posts, the more likely we are to do more like that.

Comments

Sarah says

May 30, 2014 at 8:33 am

Can I use any bar of soap, or does it have to be the kind mentioned in this post???

Log in to Reply
- Rachel says
  
  May 30, 2014 at 5:13 pm
  
  Yes, I would stick with this soap. because it is Laundry Soap. If you come across a different hard laundry soap then you could substitute with that, but don’t use skin soap as this will not work well for cleaning clothes. 1, may not clean as well 2, may cause build up 3, may fade clothes. This soap is super cheap though, I find it near the Shout, fabric dyes, Borax and other odd and ends for laundry in the laundry detergent isle.
  
  Log in to Reply
- LueAnna says
  
  June 1, 2014 at 12:22 am
  
  Sarah I use whatever bar of soap I have handy in the house. Ivory works really well though and is much cheaper than your bar of dove for this recipe!
  
  Log in to Reply
- Elizabeth says
  
  June 15, 2014 at 2:07 pm
  
  Sarah, if you can’t find Fels Naptha then you can try using Jabon Zote, Ivory or Lavendar Hill Laundry Bar. Aside from these I can’t advise much else. I strongly advise you to use the Fels Naptha though. Thanks for stopping by!
  
  Log in to Reply
sylvia wilson says

June 4, 2014 at 8:49 am

HOW MANY LOADS?

Log in to Reply
- Elizabeth says
  
  June 15, 2014 at 2:04 pm
  
  Sylvia, from the batch of detergent you make add 2 tablespoons to each load of laundry. Thanks for your question!
  
  Log in to Reply
sylvia wilson says

June 4, 2014 at 8:49 am

HOW MANY CAN BE MADE FROM THIS RECIPE?

Log in to Reply
sylvia wilson says

June 14, 2014 at 2:51 pm

WHAT CAN BE USED FOR THE SUPER WASHING SOAP IF CAN’T BE FOUND?

Log in to Reply
Alice says

July 14, 2014 at 11:56 am

I’m using ivory soap. I’m worried the shredded soap won’t totally dissolve. Does it ever leave stains on the clothing?

Log in to Reply
- Renee Romeo says
  
  July 14, 2014 at 12:04 pm
  
  Hi Alice,
  
  I have no experience of the soap leaving residue. I’ve had very positive results with this DIY.
  
  Best,
  Renee
  
  Log in to Reply
Renee Romeo says

July 14, 2014 at 4:15 pm

You can make 6-10 loads with this recipe, if you’re sparing.

Thanks
Renee

Log in to Reply
Thomas says

July 14, 2014 at 5:41 pm

Add in 1 box of baking soda and 1 container of OxyClean (usually around 1 lb) to boost this recipe.
I know when I use the Arm & Hammer soap with baking soda, it helps get rid of the “musty” smell if left sit too long in the washer (common too in HE washers) and the Oxy-cleaning stuff helps bust out those stubborn stains.
You can also throw in some scent crystals (Purex, Downy, etc) if you want to add a nice smell – although the soaps have their own nice smell so not sure if this would be a bit much.

Log in to Reply
- Renee Romeo says
  
  July 15, 2014 at 8:42 am
  
  Great tip!
  
  Thanks, Thomas.
  
  Best,
  Renee
  
  Log in to Reply
brent says

July 15, 2014 at 11:21 am

only problem with this is you must wash in hot water or the soap will NOT disolve. I normally wash in cold water with cheap washing powders with no issue. The fells naptha is more difficult to dissolve I believe.

Log in to Reply
Megan says

July 18, 2014 at 6:49 am

Can this be used in a high efficiency washer?

Log in to Reply
- Renee Romeo says
  
  July 18, 2014 at 11:51 am
  
  Hi Megan,
  
  Yes of course it can be used in a high-efficiency washer. Hope this helps.
  
  Best,
  R
  
  Log in to Reply
Amber says

July 18, 2014 at 7:10 pm

Should this be sprinkled over clothing directly or added to the laundry detergent slot in the washer?

Log in to Reply
- Renee Romeo says
  
  July 21, 2014 at 10:35 am
  
  Hi Amber,
  
  Sprinkled over the clothes directly is best!
  
  Thanks, Amber!
  
  Renee
  
  Log in to Reply
Evelyn says

August 21, 2014 at 1:13 pm

Can this be used in HE front loader and how much???

Log in to Reply
stasia says

August 21, 2014 at 9:25 pm

I made something similar. Same ingredients. I melt the soap and mix borax and washing soda in 5 gallon bucket. Makes 10 gallons. Use old tide container. Half water half laundry soap.

Log in to Reply
- stasia says
  
  August 21, 2014 at 9:26 pm
  
  Warm tap water let sit overnight
  
  Log in to Reply
Deb Gresh says

August 21, 2014 at 11:11 pm

I make my own cold pressed lye soap. This is also a good bar of soap for this recipe.

Log in to Reply
Brenda says

October 8, 2014 at 7:09 am

If I use cold water, does the soap still dissolve?

Log in to Reply
- Renee Romeo says
  
  October 20, 2014 at 10:47 am
  
  Hi Brenda,
  
  We recommend using warm water for this homemade detergent!
  
  Thank you
  Renee
  
  Log in to Reply
Kay Elam says

January 1, 2015 at 7:57 am

I don’t see in the instructions how much washing soda to use. I have a similar recipe that uses these ingredients. It makes a year’s supply at 2 Tbsp per load. My son would be interested in the smaller recipe, if it had the amounts for everything.

Log in to Reply
- Rynna Machate says
  
  January 8, 2015 at 9:19 am
  
  Hi Kay, we used 1 cup of washing soda for this recipe. Hope this helps!
  
  Log in to Reply
lizz says

January 12, 2015 at 1:03 pm

Do u think Dr Bonners soap will work for this? I’ve seen it with other recipes.

Log in to Reply
- Rynna Machate says
  
  January 13, 2015 at 8:40 am
  
  Yes, you can also use that for your preference.
  
  Log in to Reply