Laundry detergent....the necessary evil. I have 3 very active boys and a hardworking husband...I feel like I am constantly buying laundry detergent. Or trying to find coupons so I can get it cheap. I knew there had to be a better way! I started researching laundry detergent and was shocked at what I found...there are TONS of chemicals in them. They put dye in... then they put chemicals in to remove the dye to sell it to you dye free! I also found that they diluted the detergent so much that it takes alot of it to wash your clothes. No wonder I go through it so quickly.
While searching the internet I also found tons of recipes to make your own detergent. Alot of people do it this way. The Duggars make all their own laundry detergent. So I decided to give it a try. I used some of what I found and added my own little steps....so here is my recipe...
1 Box of Borax 4lbs
1 Box of Arm and Hammer Soda 4lbs
1 Box of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda 3lbs
1 Tub OxyClean 3lbs
3 bars Fls-Naptha Soap
1 Bottle of essential oil (your choice of smell)
Take a big bucket (I used a left over bucket from a previous purchase of laundry detergent) and pour all the powder ingredients into it.
Take the 3 bars of Fels-Naptha and grate them. This is the only hard part...I promise :)
Dump this into the bucket with the powder...
Take a big spoon and mix it all together.
Now this is the part that I do differently than most...I don't like "chunky" powder...I wanted mine to look more like store bought and I also wanted to scent it. So I took 5 cups at a time and put it in my blender..I also added 15 drops of the essential oil. Then I blended it til it was smooth. I forgot to take a pic of the oil...I got it a health food store and it was lavender/vanilla.
You can see by the photo below the difference. The left side has not been blended yet and the right side has. It just gives it a smoother texture. And it smells YUMMY!!!
I store the detergent in the bucket and use what I need for my jar. No one would ever guess that I made it myself!!!
Now the best part of all this is that you only use 1 TABLESPOON!!! per load. For heavily soiled clothes like jeans I use 2. I absolutely love the stuff. I have not had any problems with my clothes not being cleaned and they definitely smell great! My jar holds 10 cups of detergent...that 160 tablespoons....or 160 loads of wash! I still have another 20 cups in the bucket!!! WOW~!~
Total cost for all the ingredients were
$20.97
Total time
20 minutes
Savings.....HUNDREDS!!!
If you make your own or have any different recipes let me know...I would love to hear from you!
♥Christina
PS: Check back tomorrow for how I make my own Febreeze!!!!
4 comments:
Awesome!! I'm definitely going to give this a try. I have essential oils that I get from Ravenwood that are fabulous, and already know which I'd use. Thanks for the tip!!!
Will this work for he wash machines?
I have been making laundry detergent for a while now, but I had never thought of blending it! I will try it next time! As for the HE machine, I have a LG HE front loading washer. I haven't had any problems. As a matter of fact, I have found my washer doesn't get that funky smell that sometimes happens with using store bought detergent.
Hi, I've never done the dry homemade version of laundry detergent before. My husband is a huge fan of Tide though. Do you think it would have enough of an effect on smell if I took one dry tide powder box and mixed it in with everything else? I know it almost doubles the price, but he'd be much happier :). I just don't want it to affect the amount you would need in each load.
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