The EASIEST homemade laundry detergent recipe!

Want to save a ton of money on laundry detergent? My husband and I were buying Dreft at $22/container regularly to wash our baby daughter’s clothes (and our own), and got tired of the high cost. I had been thinking of making my own detergent for years, and I finally just did it! It was so easy, I wish I hadn’t waited so long! Here’s how to start saving money (and the environment, your health, your sanity):

Ingredients:

1 cup Borax (Find it in grocery stores and retailers like Wal-Mart and Target) – $4.09
1 cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda (In the south, Kroger and Harris Teeter sell it. Wal-Mart and Target do not) – $2.79
1 bar of Soap – I used Ivory because I couldn’t easily find Fels Naptha, which appears to be a popular choice.  Other people like Dr.Bronners as well. – 3 bars for $.99

Directions:

1. Grate the soap. This is just like grating cheese. Let’s not make this seem harder than it is, people. It took about 30 seconds.

2. Pour all ingredients into an airtight container and add 3 drops of essential oil if you’d like (lavender, lemon, or tea tree oil are favorites) and shake to mix. Easy cheesy! This makes about 3.5 cups of detergent, but you don’t need to use as much as you would if you were using conventional detergent.

How to use:

Small loads – use 1 tablespoon
Normal loads – use 2 tablespoons
Heavy loads – use 3 tablespoons

This soap powder does not get very sudsy because there are no sulfates in it. (That’s a good thing!) Don’t worry, your clothes are getting clean. I have been using our new, cheap detergent for two weeks and our clothes look and smell great! I even use this on my daughter’s cloth diapers and I love knowing I’m not subjecting her to unknown chemicals all day.

I spent a grand total of $7.87, and spent about 3 minutes making my first batch.  I don’t expect to have to buy more washing soda or Borax for at least a year!

I think making homemade cleaners is going to be addicting. I’m already looking into making our own dish washing detergent and possibly furniture polish. Stay tuned!