Homemade Laundry Detergent — Yes Or No?

I was wondering if you make your own laundry detergent. It sounds like it could be a good way to save a lot of money, but I’m confused because some people seem to love it and say it cleans their clothes well, and others don’t have anything good to say about the homemade laundry detergent at all. Do you have any experience with the homemade laundry detergent recipe? –Vicki B.

I would guess that you are asking about the laundry detergent recipe that starts with a ground up bar of soap that is combined with water, washing soda, and borax. There are several recipes “out there” but I think the most commonly seen recipe specifies one bar of soap, one cup of washing soda, and one half cup of borax. Other recipes use the same ingredients in different proportions. The process is simple… the soap is grated and then dissolved in four to six cups of water over heat. Then the soap and water mixture is added to approximately three gallons of water, the borax, and the washing soda, stirred well, and allowed to sit overnight. By morning you should have a bucket of gelatinous mixture. Most people say they use from one half to one cup of this “detergent” per load of laundry. At one cup per load, this recipe makes enough detergent for more than forty-five loads at a cost of just a few pennies per load.

So… does this stuff work? It’s interesting to see the different opinions. Some people rave about their homemade detergent and how well it cleans their laundry, and other people vow never to make it again because it didn’t take out stains, their laundered clothes smell, and their whites look dingy. Some people think that the differences in water hardness and alkalinity account for the different cleaning performances, and that may be true, because we have relatively hard water here, and the one bar of soap, half cup of borax, and one cup of washing soda recipe did not work at all for me. One of the items I was washing had a tomato stain, and even repeated washes with this homemade laundry detergent did not remove the stain… but the stain quickly disappeared when I used my regular detergent.

My personal opinion is that especially if you have hard water, this recipe is too diluted to produce a really clean wash. Figuring forty-five loads of wash per recipe means that each cup of homemade laundry detergent contains only 1/45th of a bar of soap, 1/45th of a cup of washing soda, and 1/90th of a cup of borax… not really enough of anything to work with hard water to get your clothes clean… and most of that cup of homemade laundry detergent you’re using per load is water. Of course, the cost per load goes up if you use more of this detergent. I have decided that with our hard water, this recipe with this proportion of ingredients does not work, and having clean, fresh-smelling, stain-free clothes is more important to me than the money I could save.

How about the dry version of this detergent? There are also several variations on the recipe for the dry version, but the most common one seems to call for one cup of each of the three ingredients… finely grated bar soap, washing soda, and borax… and using one to two tablespoons of the dry detergent per load. The dry version is more convenient to store and would be my choice over the liquid detergent, although I probably would not make it using the one to one to one proportions, and with our hard water, I would have to use more dry detergent per load to get the results I want. I have had excellent results using the laundry bar soap I make myself, grating it finely and adding it and borax to each load of laundry… the quantity is dependent on how soiled a particular laundry load is. With my own bar soap and borax, I have never needed to add the washing soda, and clothes come out smelling fresh, stain-free, colors are bright, and whites are white. I do give each load an extra rinse.

By the way, homemade laundry bar soap is made from fats or oils and lye, the same way any soap is made, but laundry soap is not superfatted, which means that just enough lye and oils are used to completely react with each other, so no extra oils are left unsaponified. This is why I think some of the homemade laundry detergents made with beauty bar type soap aren’t as successful as the ones made with real laundry bar soap… the extra oils in the beauty bars that are good for your skin are not so good for your laundry.

But to answer your question… if you’re still interested in making your own homemade laundry detergent, I would suggest making up a small batch and giving it a try. It may work for you or it may not, but the only way you can know for sure is to actually try a batch with your water and your laundry. I’d love to hear your conclusions!

Written by Shirley | Filed Under Doing It Ourselves, Frugality, Green Living, Simple Living, Voluntary Simplicity

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Comments

Comment by Mary:

The homemade detergent didn’t work for me either. I didn’t think of changing the proportions. I’m going to try that and I’ll let you know if I have any better results.

Comment by Mrs. Mordecai:

I have tinkered with the dry recipe for quite some time and it works for me! I agree, I think the recipe with water in it is too diluted. I actually wrote a post awhile ago on adjusting your recipe to match your water and other needs:

http://be-it-ever-so-humble.blogspot.com/2008/04/make-custom-laundry-soap-blend.html

Also, I do pretreat my stains with Spray and Wash.

Comment by Niki:

It all depends on the water. If it is hard or soft and on city of well water. I am on a well and have soft water and have had no problems with it at all. Actually I love it, we also make our own dishwashing detergent and have no problems.

Comment by chandelle:

i use dr. bronner’s castile soap on all of my laundry, including diapers. i’ve never had any trouble using it and i can refill my bottles at the health food store for very cheap. i use bronner’s for everything from hands to dishes to laundry to hair. it’s amazing stuff and a good company to support (fair-trade and organic).

Comment by Janet:

I started my own laundry detergent in May and have had no problems! I use the dry recipe–1 cup grated soap, 1/2 cup washing powder, 1/2 cup borax. I have tried a couple of different types of soaps and am happy with the unscented Dial soap. I have shared the detergent with several friends and they are happily using the detergent. I use one tablespoon per load of laundry and I use cold water the majority of the time. This detergent has effectively cleaned all my laundry from towels, pet accidents, my husbands outdoor work clothes and regular household laundry. My friend who has a seventh grade son told me that the detergent cleaned her son’s baseball uniform and removed the body odor better than TIDE.

Comment by Gretchen:

I have made my own detergent, and it has worked really, really well. I do pre-treat stains so I haven’t had any problems and I usually line dry my clothes and they smell very nice!

Comment by Jane:

I also use the dry recipe with my own castile soap. I have extremely hard water, so I use equal amounts of washing soda and borax (borax is a water softener). I use half about 2 tbsp. per load. I’ll have to try it without the washing soda!

Comment by Anna:

There’s a couple other tricks folks can try with homemade laundry detergent:

Soaking the clothes. I use the lower timed settings on my washer, let the washer fill up with water, and turn it off. I come back 30 minutes (longer if clothes are really soiled) and turn washer back on. Using a lower timed setting also saves energy. (Setting a timer helps remind you to go back and turn it on :)

White Vinegar. White vinegar can help with hard water – you would have to play around with it to get the proper proportion for your water. White vinegar is also supposed to help keep whites white.

Comment by Abiga/karen:

My daughter made her own laundry detergent the way you described. We have well water but also have a water softener and I think it works well. Even in the city Tide was the only detergent that got out stains by just washing with it. Here we have stains but if needed I rub bar soap into the stains and scrub before washing in the machine and then the stains do come out. We are on septic tank so therefore we would rather use homemade instead of chemicals to seep into the ground water. Plus it is cheaper and fun. Blessings.

Comment by Andi:

I use this recipe from Sandy Maine’s book, Clean, Naturally, except I leave out the essential oil:

16 cups of baking soda
12 cups of borax
8 cups of grated castile soap
3 tablespoons lavender, lemon, or grapefruit essential oil

Mix together the baking soda, borax, and grated castile soap. Use a whisk to stir in essential oil. Use 1/8 cup per load.

I just found your blog a couple of days ago and really like it. :-)

Comment by Rebecca:

On Sunshine Diapers website, I read about using Simple Green and Washing soda, 1tbsp and 1 scoop respectively, to creat your own laundry detergent safe for all laundry, including cloth diapers. I have begun to try and am wondering is there anyone else who has used this recipie? I had 1/2 Borax to load due to hard water and on my first non-diaper load noticed things clean, excpet for a few items still with faint bo or urine odors depending on grow-up or baby previous wearer. Someone must use this reciepie?

Comment by Serita:

Does anyone know if these recipes work with HE washers?? I’d love to experiment, but I’m bit afraid!!! Thanks!
(BTW, I just found this site and I’m loving it!)

Comment by holly:

I’ve been using the liquid version using 1/2 C of baking and washing sodas and borax with 1/3 bar grated laundry soap. Love it. Won’t go back to store brand again. I’ve noticed that some site have people who complain about the soap not working well because of some stains still in their clothes. I was looking for soap that worked as well as the store brands and the homemade does. I said as well not better. I still pretreat stains just like like I had to when I used Tide. It’s no different. I am, however, using vinegar in place of both bleach and fabric softener. I read on another site how to use slivers of bar soap from the sink or shower that I’m going to try. Place those little slivers into a jar. Once the jar is half full, fill the jar with boiling water and let sit over night. It’s supposed to be used as a pretreater for laundry. Kind of like a stain stick. You put it on the stain and put it in the laundry hamper to wait for laundry day. I think that I’ll probably melt the slivers in wate on the stove though. Just because that’s how I melt it for my laundry soap and know that works to dissolve it all. If anyone else had tried this, I’d like to know how it worked. Oh, by the way. I have a HE machine and have had no ill effects from this soap. HE washers have problems with regular detergent because of suds damaging the motor. The soap and I think most of the homemade versions have little or no suds. Mine had none. Happy Washing

Comment by Sara:

Does anyone know if liquid castile soap can be substituted for the bar soap in the liquid recipe?? Probably using 8 oz. for each bar it calls for?

Comment by Carolann:

I make my own laundry soap using 1 bar of laundry soap ( such as fels naptha, or zote) I add 2 cups borax and 2 cups washing soda. I live in oil field country every one has to deal with oil on their husbands work clothes…my husband is a heavy equipment mechanic so you can imangine…anywho…this formula is perfect for our hard water plus it really gets the oilstains out of my husbands clothes, but is gental enough to wash my grandsons baby clothes in. My formula makes 10 gallons of soap, for work clothes I use 1 cup per load for regular loads I use 1/2 cup per load.
Since soda ash is used by oilfield company’s and is mined right here I get my soda ash for free from my husbands company but before that I bought it from the laundry mat, most laundry mats here have 100 lbs bags where you pay 25 cents a cup to use it as a laundry booster for oily clothes.
My 10 gallons of soap is divided up between me, my parents, and my daughter and lasts us about 3 months or so….my daughter adds essental oil to hers, but my parents and I like it unsecented.

Comment by Sky:

I make my detergent with a bar of Fels-Naptha soap, washing soda and borax.
It works great in my HE front loader washer because it is very low suds.

Comment by M.L.:

I’m not sure why there seems to be such a difference for so many people on this subject, but we are in the group of nay sayers. Our clothes started looking dingy and began to smell dirty. So, for now, we’re back to using store bought detergent.

Comment by Sue:

Hello Shirley, i discovered your website by accident. It is a very VERY good website. I like your idea of being frugal.There is much to learn from you.I have always practise the shopping tip of my own too. I do have an advice on laundry detergent. More doesn’t really mean clean better.I do find the recommended amount on laundry packet is TOO MUCH. So I use a SMALLER SCOOP and SOAK my laundry over night. Then DRY cloths UNDER THE SUN. So I basically wash cloths depending on weather,which is not too bad in California. BTW,to remove tomato stain after your wash, leave the stained cloths in the sun for a few hours. Ketchup or tomato stains will disappear. Trust me it works.

Comment by AnnMelanie:

I have made my own laundry soap with the borax, grated bar of soap, and baking soda super washing powder – and now there are stains on alot of my clothes. You can see them if you put the clothing up to the light – spots everywhere, on the underwear, socks, pj’s, dresses (cotton). I just made a fresh batch, 5 gallons worth – I’m wondering if I did not dilute it enough ? I have a front loading machine…

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