Monthly Archives: September 2014

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

Well, while our daughter was gone on vacation this summer I made my first batch of homemade laundry detergent. I have been meaning to make it for years but never got around to doing it. Our daughter has been making her laundry detergent for the last couple of years. It was much easier to do than I thought it would be and is so much cheaper. She said it only cost about $2 to make a 5 gallon bucket full and only using ½ cup for each load, will last quite a while. To get all of the ingredients it is almost $7 but compared to ready made laundry detergent is much cheaper. She gets all of the ingredients at Wal-Mart. She said if a load is really dirty she will add oxi-clean which she gets at the Dollar Tree for a dollar and will last for a while depending on how dirty your children get their clothes. The ingredients for the laundry detergent are below:

1 five gallon bucket, these you can get at paint stores or Wal-Mart or Home Depot
1 bar of soap-you can use Fels Naphtha or Zote which are only 97 cents
1 cup of Washing Soda, use washing soda not Baking Soda they are different about $3
1 cup of Borax, which usually goes by “20 Mule Borax” about $3

Other items needed are a cheese grater, a long handled stirring spoon, a pot that will hold at least 4 cups of water and a measuring cup. If you would like to add a different scent to the soap you can use essential oils, however, I prefer the scent of the ZOTE bar soap to Fels Naphtha. Whatever the color of the soap is will be the color of the detergent.

Use the cheese grater to grate the bar of soap and put it in 4 cups of water and put on medium high heat so that the soap dissolves in the water, do not boil. Pour this into the bucket and add 1 cup of Washing Soda and 1 cup of Borax to the mixture and stir until all is dissolved. If you want to add a different scent, now is the time to add that. Fill the bucket half way and stir. Place the half full bucket at the point where you will be using it and stir. Then add water until filled up to about an inch below the top of the bucket. You will still need to stir the detergent so don’t overfill. Place the top on the bucket and let stand for 24 hours. The detergent will look like a gloppy gel, and that is how it is supposed to look. You can leave it in the bucket or put in smaller containers whichever is more convenient for you. If you don’t like the gloppy gel you can pour some out and use a blender to make it more even looking that will be just your preference. It does not affect the way it works one way or the other.

For a front loader HE washing machine use ½ cup for a large load – you will get about 160 loads out of the 5 gallons-, if you use a top loading washer you can use up to 1 cup – about 80 loads out of the 5 gallons- for each large load. And adjust as needed. Most commercial laundry products tell you to use too much soap per load so that you use more and have to buy more.

If you have any questions or concerns or have a different way that you make your laundry detergent, please share your comments. we would love to hear your comments.

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