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.
Can I use any bar of soap, or does it have to be the kind mentioned in this post???
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.
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!
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!
HOW MANY LOADS?
Sylvia, from the batch of detergent you make add 2 tablespoons to each load of laundry. Thanks for your question!
HOW MANY CAN BE MADE FROM THIS RECIPE?
WHAT CAN BE USED FOR THE SUPER WASHING SOAP IF CAN’T BE FOUND?
I’m using ivory soap. I’m worried the shredded soap won’t totally dissolve. Does it ever leave stains on the clothing?
Hi Alice,
I have no experience of the soap leaving residue. I’ve had very positive results with this DIY.
Best,
Renee
You can make 6-10 loads with this recipe, if you’re sparing.
Thanks
Renee
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.
Great tip!
Thanks, Thomas.
Best,
Renee
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.
Can this be used in a high efficiency washer?
Hi Megan,
Yes of course it can be used in a high-efficiency washer. Hope this helps.
Best,
R
Should this be sprinkled over clothing directly or added to the laundry detergent slot in the washer?
Hi Amber,
Sprinkled over the clothes directly is best!
Thanks, Amber!
Renee
Can this be used in HE front loader and how much???
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.
Warm tap water let sit overnight
I make my own cold pressed lye soap. This is also a good bar of soap for this recipe.
If I use cold water, does the soap still dissolve?
Hi Brenda,
We recommend using warm water for this homemade detergent!
Thank you
Renee
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.
Hi Kay, we used 1 cup of washing soda for this recipe. Hope this helps!
Do u think Dr Bonners soap will work for this? I’ve seen it with other recipes.
Yes, you can also use that for your preference.