Homemade Laundry Detergent

Homemade Laundry Detergent

a.m.k.c.i (as my kids call it) Fruity Pebbles Soap



Ok so I have been all over Pintrest (which anyone that has been trying to catch anything of substance on my facebook is aware...sorry it is far too addicting) and I keep seeing these posts for homemade laundry soaps.  I even found several different types of soaps you can make at home at quite a cost savings (hand soap, kitchen soap, laundry soap, dishwasher soap, body soap, face soap, soap soap....I am channeling my inner Forest Gump here) ANYWAY I was looking through another blog which is one of my favorites One Good Thing By Jillee (this chick makes everything) and I really liked how she made the laundry detergent but I didn't really like the way it looked.  On Pintrest I keep seeing these cute and pretty containers of powdered soap and I got to thinking....hmmmm...I went back to using powdered dishwasher detergent because it was cheaper and worked so much better than the packets or liquid that would continually get stuck in my BRAND NEW dishwasher containers....maybe the same principle would apply to my laundry detergent.  I was spending a TON of money on laundry detergent and products (bounce sheets, bounce bars, in-wash scent boosters, in-wash stain boosters, the actual detergent, Clorox, Clorox 2, liquid fabric softener, etc.)  The laundry industry is a racket for sure!

really pretty AND functional

super functional but not my style

I am always trying to save a few bucks here and there and since everyone in our house has ULTRA sensitive skin I had to make sure the ingredients were going to be gentle as well. I knew most of the ingredients were gentle if not sensitive skin safe from hearing about how my Mom had to wash all of my baby clothes and diapers in Borax because everything else would break me out.  I know that Oxiclean (the one free of dyes, scents, etc.) is gentle because I washed all of my daughter's baby clothes in them. The other ingredients were Baking Soda which is gentle enough for baking and home cleaning, Super Washing Soda (which is a baking soda derivative), and the additional ingredients I could choose so I picked ones I knew worked for my family.  It also had to first work with my HE front load washer, smell good, be soft, and please my ultra picky laundry hubby.

My adventure in making laundry detergent was kind of a mixture of a few different recipes with my own products kicked in because that is what works best for MY FAMILY and MY WASHER.  Use this recipe at your own risk so if you try this and you break out in hives or your washer explodes don't come sue me.  But I would definitely want to hear about your adventures in laundry detergent making. ;o)

 

 

I first had my Father pick up a 5 gallon paint bucket from Lowe's WITH A MATCHING LID!  The lid is ultra important so you can close the bucket and shake/roll it when the products get heavily layered in there and to keep any kids/pets from falling in or messing with your soap.

 

 

I found these recipes on Pintrest while I was recovering from hip surgery and I couldn't get to the store myself so I had to ask my Mom and Hubby to pick them up for me at the store, but I couldn't ask for my Hubby to hunt a bunch of random items he isn't familiar with so what they didn't bring home I just ordered off of Amazon.com  HOWEVER most all of these items you can find at the grocery store, Target, or Walmart.  So I mixed them together as they came home and were delivered and kept mixing them together and adding what ingredients I thought were needed. I also only mixed and used a small amount at a time so I could gage softness, scent, whitening, etc.

 

 

The one difference in my mixture and what you will find online is I really like the scent of so many of the laundry products I used, so I added some store bought products to get the scent and softness.  I just wanted to see if I could make it cheaper to save some money for our upcoming move and to use a gentler/greener product.  So here we go!

 

 

THE INGREDIENTS

1      5 gallon paint bucket WITH LID

1      pretty container (to hold a small amount without having to scoop from the bucket each time)

1-2TBS scoop or bottle top (I used to bottle and top to one of the Downy unstopables bottles)

1.25  boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax powder (laundry aisle)

1-3lb box of OxiClean Free

1.5    boxes of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (laundry aisle)

1-3lb box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (baking aisle)

2        bars of Fels Naptha laundry soap (laundry aisle)

1        bar of Pink Zote (Amazon.com or hardware store in cleaner aisle)

2        bars of plain Dove Soap (personal hygenine aisle) This can be any soap but I used Dove to make the clothes softer because each bar has 1/4cup moisterizing cream and is hypo-allergenic according to my dermotologist

1        bottle of Purex Fabric Softening Crystals (laundry aisle)

1        bottle of Downy Unstoppables (I used 2 bottles one of each scent) (laundry aisle)

1        bottle of Gain In-Wash Stain and Scent booster (I LOVE GAIN laundry aisle)

*optional* I have not used these yet (because the OxiClean seems to work perfectly at whitening my clothes) but some recipes I saw said to use a optical whitener as well.  If you wish to use these you can find them in the laundry aisle as well.  Some people do not like them because it is a harsh, although effective, chemical and supposedly is not good for the environment.

The first thing (and mistake) I did was to grate all of the soap bars.  I say mistake because I used my actual "grating" blade which make it all look like 1" long strips of cheese in various colors (which you can see in the picture).  Now there isn't anything wrong with this except I didn't like the look, so the next time I did it I ran it through the food processor (yes it's just soap afterall so I just ran everything through the dishwasher afterwards and was perfectly fine) and finely grated them.  Plus since I am neither chemist or clothes washer repair expert I thought the longer strips might get clogged in the dispense chamber....and then I remembered I wasn't going to use it anyway so it was mainly for the asthetic look for me.  I don't think there is any reason not to run this mixture through the dispensing chamber but knowing my luck I would muck up the machine and end up having to buy a new one...all due to my "money-saving idea" and my Hubby would be none to happy! ;-) so I toss it into the barrel with the clothes (sometimes before the clothes sometimes on top of.  It seems to make no difference to the machine or quality of the wash.)

ANYWAY Sorry I do tend to get sidetracked...:-P

 

 

THE STEPS

1.  Grate all bars to your desired texture.

2.  Mix all ingredients using a "layering" method (be sure to wear a mask because the powders will "bloom up" into your face.  I had my kids helping mix - oh so fun .... for them - but they needed masks so not to breathe everything in.)

3.  If it is not mixed to your saisfaction pop the lid on (make sure it is securely on mainly why kids had so much fun....and not me ;o) lol) and roll it, shake it, or just roll it half way, open lid and mix, put the lid back on, roll again, mix, roll, mix, etc.  It is a lot of powder and pretty heavy so I used a salad tossing set from forever ago that has long thick wooden handles with metal tips and they worked perfect. If your Hubby has a mortar mixer attachment for his drill that would work perfectly as well.

4. Scoop a small amount into your pretty container and add your scoop and you are ready to go!







HOW TO USE



This is a pretty potent mixture so I only use 1-2 TABLESPOONS PER LOAD- that is it!  This ginormous bucket should last a good long while (estimate about 12 months depending on how often you run the wash and how much you use) and cost about $30-$35 but for an entire year will save us several hundred dollars....so I think it is pretty awesome.

 

 

I am going to write another post about how I gave up dryer sheets but will update that later.  Since it took me so long to write this one, I am sure my kids are into all kinds of craziness.

Laters :o)