Saturday, April 3, 2010

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I got an email from Money Saving Mom about making your own laundry soap and I was very interested in doing so since I hate having to buy laundry soap because of the expense. This recipe comes out to be just a penny or two a load and I am hopeful it works just as well as the other stuff. Here is the recipe I used. It makes about 64 loads worth.

It smells nice and it was super easy to make. Levi helped me by grating the soap. BTW I bought all my pots and measuring cups at a thrift store so I don't have to use the ones we use for cooking. Here are some pictures and I will be sure to follow up with how it works on washing our clothing.

Grating the soap:

Melting it down with the other ingredients

Stirring in the rest of the water

Me looking not so cute

The finished product with our 1/2 cup measure cup on top, one for each load.


There are other recipes on how to make powder detergents but I was worried they wouldn't dissolve very well in cold water. I also heard using liquid detergent isn't good if you have hard water.

4 comments:

Julie said...

This seems very similar to the recipe I have. I haven't heard about liquid detergent being bad in hard water, in fact, I've heard the opposite here and we have very hard water. With the liquid, you just don't need to use as much at all. It lasts a lot longer and goes a long way. It looks fun to make your own, I'll have to try it again sometime. I also would buy a liquid container, use it up and then refill it with my homeade brand. It might be a bit easier. Let me know how it goes.

Bonnie said...

Thanks for the information. So far I think it is going okay. I am not sure if I am using too much or too little in the wash though. One website said to use a half of a cup another said to use a whole cup per load and they are the same recipe.

Adrienne said...

Hi, I'm just stopping by. Found you through my cousin. So, um, how is the laundry detergent working?
I loved the idea of getting the pots and stuff from the thrift store. I wouldn't have thought of that!

Bonnie said...

It's going really well. It takes no time at all to make it and I don't have to buy the ingredients all too often since they last for a lot of batches. I usually do have to put in one cup of detergent instead of the 1/2 cup recommendation. It seems to get out our everyday stains too. The only weird thing is that my clothes don't smell refreshing like they do with normal soap. I can get over that though. Thanks for stopping by Adrienne.