DIY powdered laundry detergent. Super easy to make and it works as great as some expensive laundry detergents, but at a fraction of the cost.
There are lots of "recipes" for laundry detergent out there and mine is really no different. The only difference is that my recipe makes about 1 gallon of detergent instead of the normal 3-5 gallons you'll find lurking about the web.
Why? Because I have a TINY laundry room and can't store a 5 gallon bucket in there. Because I have no storage anywhere else in my home. And, well, because 1 gallon of this detergent lasts me about 2 months (at 4-6 loads per week) and that's plenty for me.
So, if you've been looking for the recipe for a smaller size DIY laundry detergent, or maybe you've wanted to try it and don't want to make 5 gallons, here's your recipe.
DIY Laundry Detergent:
2 cups Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
3/4 cup Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
3 cups 20 Mule Team Borax
1 Fels-Naptha Soap Bar
4 1/2 cups Oxi Clean Powder
1 cup Purex Crystals
First you want to take your bar of Fels-Naptha and grate it with a cheese grater into a large bowl. Some people use a blender or food processor...use whatever works for you. Then add 4 1/2 cups of oxi-clean to the bowl (for some reason I forgot to take a picture of this...sorry).
Add 3 cups of the Borax to the bowl with the grated soap.
Add 2 cups of the washing soda to the bowl.
Add 3/4 cups of baking soda to the bowl.
Add 1 cup of the Purex Crystals to the bowl (I didn't quite have a whole cup left...this container has been used for 2 other detergent batches already...it really goes a long way).
Use your hands, or a big spoon, and mix the ingredients together in the bowl. As you can see, the crystals and soap are larger pieces than everything else. While this won't affect how well it washes, I am a bit neurotic about everything being the same size, so I blend my soap.
Pour 1/2 of the detergent into the blender and blend for a few moments until everything looks like a powder.
See how nice and pretty and powdery it looks now :) Yes, simple things like this make me happy.
Here you can see I've added a rice pouch. I've heard reports that the detergent can gather moisture and become hard as a rock. (I'm pretty sure it's when you make a 5 gallon bucket size, since it takes such a long time to use it up. I've never had this problem with the 1 gallon size). The tip...add a 1/4 cup of uncooked rice to a coffee filter and tie into a little sachet. The rice will help draw out any moisture that might threaten to harden your detergent. I fill the container 1/2 way with detergent, add the rice pouch, then finish filling with detergent.
And voila...your very own homemade DIY laundry detergent! Easy peasy!
Please note: you will not get lots of suds and bubbles with this detergent. That's perfectly normal. The store bought detergents add ingredients that make the soap suds up but have no cleaning affect at all. So, don't worry when you don't see the bubbles. I promise, it's going to do a good job anyway!
Use 2 tbsp per load, 3tbsp for extra dirty loads. I always use 2 tbsp per large load (and I have 2 kids who LOVE dirt), do 4-6 loads per week and this will last me 2 months. I spent about $32 for all the ingredients and it made 3 batches with lots of oxiclean left over (did you see the size of that box?! Gotta love Costco). The 3 batches will last me 6 months, so that equals to about $5 per MONTH for detergent! I used to use Tide, and loved it, but spent almost $20 per month. Now I make my own, love it just as much as the store bought detergent, and spend 1/4 of what I used to! Gotta love that!
Enjoy your laundry detergent!
Happily Homemade
Sandra
P.S. I also use this to sprinkle on my carpet as a deodorizer/carpet freshener. I sprinkle it on the carpet, wait about 10 minutes, then vacuum right up! Makes my house smell great!
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