Savvy Brown

Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent Recipe

Posted in Home, Home Archive, Home Recipes | Saturday, January 30th, 2010

laundry bask

Here’s one that will save you tons of money and it’s better for you, your home, the environment, your clothes AND your washing machine. (Even if it’s one of those new fangled HE ones).

What you’ll need:
  • 1 cup Borax
  • 1 cup Washing Soda (This is NOT baking soda, it’s found in the laundry aisle)
  • 1 bar of Soap – I like Octagon, Fels Naptha laundry soap, or Dr.Bronners, some people even use good-old fashioned Ivory
  • Box Grater
  • essential oil (optional)
  • 1 wide mouth container
  • 1 tablespoon or small tbsp scoop

Directions:

1. Grate the soap. I use the medium grade side.You can use the smallest grade if you want, but it takes longer. (I usually do this while watching TV or simmering dinner or even on the phone.)

I found this FAB grater at IKEA. It’s basically a container with grater top. Perfect for containing the grated soap!

2. Pour all dry ingredients into an airtight container and add 3 drops of essential oil (I like lavender) shake vigorously to mix. This makes about 3.5 cups of detergent, BUT you don’t need to use as much as you would if you were using conventional detergent. You could always double or triple this recipe if you want.

How to use:

  • Small loads – use 1 tablespoon of powder per loads
  • Normal loads –  2 tbsps
  • Heavy loads – 3 tbsps

Even though I have a front load washer, I like to let a little water in the washer first, then add the powder and then the clothes. For particularly large dirty loads,stop the washer and let the clothes soak for a little while, and then continue the cycle. This soap powder does NOT gets very sudsy because there’s no sulfates in it. Don’t worry, your clothes are getting clean.NOTE:  Even though these ingredients are better for you and the environment than traditional detergents, THEY ARE STILL CLEANING PRODUCTS. Please use the same “common-sense” precautions you would as with other cleaning products. (In other words, don’t eat it, ok?)

Here’s a great a article about how to make your own liquid laundry detergent.




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55 Responses to “Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent Recipe”

  • Savvy says:

    @elizabeth I’m sorry you’re having trouble. You can always get it from here, if you still can’t find it.

  • [...] Ology is Walgreen’s new line of green products.  The line sports conditioner, baby lotion, toilet paper, CFL light bulbs, glass cleaner, fabric softener and more.  I’m always a bit skeptical when a big company starts putting out a line of green products, honestly, so it wasn’t until a display coupon for $2.00 that I decided to try the laundry detergent. (I rarely buy laundry detergent since I like to make my own). [...]

  • Sandi Storm says:

    Savvy,

    Is your detergent recipe safe for septic tanks?

  • Savvy says:

    @Sandi yes! In fact the ingredients are safer for your septic tank than most off the shelf detergent. Thanks for commenting!

  • Bas says:

    Tip from my wife: freeze the soap before grating. Makes it a lot easier, according to her!

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