Homemade Laundry Detergent

I made another ‘recipe’ yesterday – I tried homemade laundry detergent! I will include the original ingredients, but when I made it, I only mixed one-half of everything. I found all of these items at Walmart in Dayton, which is not a very large store, so they should be fairly easy to find anywhere. That was one thing I was worried about, as our store does not always have the best selection, so sometimes we have to go to a bigger town to find what we need.




1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax

1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 (3 lb) Container of OxiClean – this is optional, the directions I found recommended it, but I left it out, mostly because I forgot to buy it. I figured if it needed a boost, I could just add a little to the loads that need it.

2 (14.1 oz) Bars of Zote Soap- I could not find this soap, so I used Fels-Naptha

2 (2 lb) Boxes of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda – our store doesn’t carry 2 or 4 lb boxes, so I had to get 4 of the 1 lb boxes, and I just bought the Great Value brand.

1-2 (55 oz) Bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener – this is also optional, I bought the scent called Tropical Splash. Again, our store did not have 55 oz bottles, so I had to buy 4 smaller bottles.



This was super easy to make – Grate the bars of soap on a very fine grater. This is the hardest part, my arm was very tired, but it only took maybe 5 minutes to grate one bar. I put the grated soap in a large plastic bin, and added all of the other ingredients. I stirred after adding each one, as I thought that would be easier. I have a big spoon that I am going to leave in the bin, since I don’t want to use it for food now! That’s it, now you are ready to do some laundry – Yippee! I also saved the Purex bottles, as the original directions advised, and filled them with the detergent. Now I can use just a small bottle on a daily basis, and I put the bin with the extra detergent in a cabinet until I need it. You only need to use 1-2 Tablespoons per load!

So, I tried it out on a couple of blankets that my husband had in the house. They were a little funky, as I think they had not been cleaned in a while. They came out smelling nice and fresh, and seem very clean. I haven’t tried it on our clothes yet, but neither of us has any problem with skin sensitivity, so I’m not worried. I am really happy with this detergent, and I really like the fact that I won’t have to worry about running out for quite some time! I would definitely recommend that you try this.