Home Made Laundry Detergent

[drhall762]

I am passing this along for any and all that want to use it. I have been making it for almost a year now and infact, many of my neighbors make it and use it. Not only does it do the job as well as the commercial stuff, Tide, Gain, etc; but it costs about $0.70 per gallon. Big savings.

You will need 3 basic ingredients; a soap of some sort, washing soda and borax.

The Soap: The most typical type of soap to use is Fels Naptha.

Washing Soda: This is not to be confused with baking soda. They are not the same thing. Washing soda is sodium carbonate or soda ash (baking soda is sodium bicarbonate). It is a white powder. Its purpose is to help remove dirt and orders. The brand to look for is Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. I find it in the laundry section of my grocery store.

Borax: Borax is a naturally occurring mineral: Sodium Borate. It is a white powder. It’s purpose is as a laundry whitener and deodorizer. The brand to look for is 20 Mule Team. It comes in a 76 oz. box. You should be able to locate this in the laundry detergent aisle.

The Recipe
Now that you have assembled all the needed ingredients here is the recipe:
Homemade Laundry Soap
1/3 bar Fels Naptha
½ cup washing soda
½ cup borax powder
~You will also need a small bucket, about 2 gallon size~

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. Mix the soap thoroughly to mix up the gel. I put mine in an old liquid soap container so that I don’t have to mess with a 2 gallon bucket. Shake before using. You use 1/3 to ½ cup per load.

**A few things to note about the soap**
~The finished soap will not be a solid gel. It will be more of a watery gel that has been accurately described as an "egg noodle soup" look.
~The soap is a low sudsing soap. So if you don’t see suds, that is ok. Suds are not what does the cleaning, it is the ingredients in the soap.

Optional: If you want your soap to have some sort of scent you can scent this with ½ to 1 oz. of essential oil or fragrance oil of your choice.

Hope this post is in keeping with the spirit of Helping Hands.

[s1mp13m4n]

I think this is a great idea. I have looked into this sort of thing before, but then I forget about doing it. Right now I am washing what that large tub of powder from the Sam's Club that costs about $13 and lasts us at least 6 months.

[NewbieDave007]

Interesting stuff. Thanks for the information.

[S&W-629]

Thanks for the info I will have to look for that stuff

[sparkz]

I found and have everything but the Arm & Hammer Washing Soda.,, I am still lookin for that
Il let ya know how its working when i find the last stuff

Thanks for the heads up on this one
I have two teen agers and am a single dad so I wear lots of hats and make due with little money so great find

Thanks again

Patrick

[trooperdan]

Patrick, your local walmart should have the washing soda, right near the regular detergent.

[sparkz]

Thanks TD, We buy Borax there so Il have to take a look for it,
Doing Landury today,,, want a drag..... hahaha

Thanks
Patrick

[drhall762]

Our Wal-Mart is kinda' hit and miss on the Washing Soda. We have a store called Harris Teeter. Has everything grocery related in it and they are a constant source for it. A box will last you a while though.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Very cool! I think this is a perfect post for the helping hands section! Can't wait to try it!

[LocoFixersbetterhalf]

This is great stuff. made it in my MOPS group last year. I noticed Ben's nasty work clothes looking a lot better after using it.

[BrassMagnet]

As soon as I saw this thread, I copied the recipe to a notepad document! More money to spend on Brass!

[Redd508]

We've started using this same recipe. It works great and costs alot less than regular detergent. It has a very clean smell but rinses completely out of the clothes

[drhall762]

Very true on both count. I am very pleased with it.

[waksupi]

I priced out the materials in the grocery today. The Sun detergent beats it on price.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

How much was the sun detergent and how many loads do they claim you get out of it??

At 70 cents per gallon of the DIY detergent and using 1/2 cup per load (32 loads per gallon), that is right at 2 cents per load. Seems pretty hard to beat.

Maybe the OP found the components at a much lower price than you did.

[drhall762]

Sounds Like A Math Error To Me. Haven't Found Any Commercial Product At That Price.

[waksupi]

Probably so, my math skills do suck!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I buy a pail (says 32 lbs, looks about like 5 gallon size) of "wind fresh" powder laundry detergent for around $15. The bucket says 200 loads...The calculator says that's 7.5¢ per load. It works for this old bachelor...a bucket lasts about 2 years.

[Shiloh]

The ingredients are relatively cheap. There used to be books and papers that gave this type of info on making your own equivilents of everyday stuff.

Shiloh

[drhall762]

Shiloh,

I have collected a couple over the years. The book Fortunes in Formulas is a very good one. They change some over the years. I have them from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. They can often be fount on Amazon. I have a duplicate from the late 40's around somewhere. PM me if you can't find one.

[Shiloh]

The thing is drhall, there may not have been a lot of money for those choosing to live a subsistence or simple rural lifestyle.
You could save money here to be used for machine or auto parts.

Shiloh

[Shiloh]

Shiloh,

I have collected a couple over the years. The book Fortunes in Formulas is a very good one. They change some over the years. I have them from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. They can often be fount on Amazon. I have a duplicate from the late 40's around somewhere. PM me if you can't find one.

The thing is drhall, there may not have been a lot of money for those choosing to live a subsistence or simple rural lifestyle.
You could save money here to be used for machine or auto parts. "The Whole Earth Catalog" comes to mind, but there was another resource that escapes me.

Shiloh

[phonejack]

My wife makes the same thing, only keeps in dry form. The fels naphtha smells great. I frequently grate that for her. Sure works better than store bought! + rating

[Gibbs44]

The wife's been making this stuff for about two years. I like it much better than the stinky stuff from the store. It seems to work pretty well, cheap too, or else we wouldn't do it.

She also says she breaks it into small pieces and then runs it through the food processor instead of grating it by hand.

[dmclark523]

Been using this now for about a year. I can attest to it working very well. However, if you are looking for that 'fresh flowers' smell, look elsewhere. This stuff doesn't give off any type of scent.

[jaysouth]

My wife, bless her frugal german upbringing, has been making laundry soap for some time. Thanks for the infor for making it into a liquid thought. It appears to be the same recipe except for rendering it liquid.

When I was in the Army in Germany in the early 60s, we produced suds for washing pots and pan in the messhall by running hot water over GI soap bars. We put a wire bail on an empty #10 can and punched holes in the bottom. The caustic soap went into the bottom and the bail hung on the hot water tap. When you turned on the hot water, suds for cleaning, for another five minutes.

Lots of things about the old days that I do not wistfully daydream about.

[armedmoose]

I use a powdered version of this homemade laundry detergent. Used for almost 4 years on cloth diapers, talk about mess and stains :veryconfu. I have 3 young ones, 2 still in diapers. I have never had a diaper rash on any of my girls, which is different than the horror stories I hear from other parent friends.

These recipes work great! My Tips to add:

If you are lazy like me, use a food processor to grade the soap with grater then add the Washing Soda and Borax and mix with mixing blade.
I prefer "ZOTE" clothes washing bar soap, used to be sold in Walmart but no longer, ACE Hardware has it as well as Ethnic (Mexican) Grocery Stores. It comes in different smells.
Washing Soda is sometimes hard to find, Not all Walmarts carry it. But Ace Hardware you can ship to store for free.
You can add essential oils like Lavender or Citrus to change the smell (or add a smell) if you desire smelly laundry.
I preferred to make it dry since I had one of those Front Loading HE Washing machines and it has a water sprayer in the soap dispensing box, and I could make 2-3 batches in the food processor at once.

[alha]

Hi guys, thought I'd jump in for a sec to pass on an opinion based upon what I've found at work, I do appliance repair for a living. One thing about soap and front loading washers, is that you only need a small amount. At least when it comes to commercial brands like Tide, etc, you only need to use about a tablespoon, and it has to be HE style. You may need to either pre-treat or use slightly more if you have really dirty clothes, or hard water, but for normal everyday non-"dirty" clothes, about 1 Tbsp is all you need. If you have a top loader, then you need to use more, because they are much less efficient and use a ton more water. As for power vs. liquid, I prefer liquid, because it disperses better. I can't tell you how many times I have worked on a customers front loader where they use powder, and when I opened the dispenser door, it was all coated with crusty soap, because the water blasting into the dispenser sprays it everywhere. One big issue with that, is that it brings soap in every time it fills with water, which you certainly don't want in the rinse cycle.

About stinking machines, this is caused by using too much soap. Some ppl unfortunately read the directions on the soap bottle, and use Way too much. Then within a year or so they find mold growing on their boot seal, and it's also growing in their tubs and tub to pump hoses. It's caused by too much soap, and it not rinsing out properly. I also do an extra rinse on every load I run, have for 15 years and never had an issue with odor in mine. With front loaders, you Don't want to see it sudsing up when it is washing, if you do, then you're using too much or the wrong type of soap. One easy way to tell if you are using too much soap in front loader is to run a cycle with nothing in it and no soap, pick the longest, hottest cycle it has, and watch it run. If at about 20-40 mins into the cycle you see anything other than hot water splashing around, you're using too much soap.

This is becoming a book, I'll leave it at that, but if you have a question about what I've mentioned, please feel free to ask, I'm happy to try and help. Especially in this section.

[CATS]

How hard is this mix on bright colors? Does it cause the colors to fade faster/slower? How easy is this on wool how easy is this on delicates? Has anyone noticed that it is more/less irritating to their skin?
Thanks

[sparkz]

JonB where do ya buy a 5gal bucket of landey soap at (Stores)??
"wind fresh" powder laundry detergent?
Sean and I are Crusty guys,, hahah
and with all the money we are gona save on casting our own,, we should be rich very soon but untill that day we need to find deals like that. lol,,


also if I made this dry mix,, how do ya mesure it it would be like a few spoons haha
\so do ya strech it with someting?

I have found the last needed wash soda now tho so i am ready to go just thinking about a dry type has me thinkin easyer to store


ok Boys and Gals

Il be a watchin


Patrick

[drhall762]

CATS - I use it on everything. Have not seen any issue with colors. My wool garments that are machine washable do fine. I have some that are not but I seldom if ever wear them anymore so I don't know. I have less skin irritation than I did with Tide.

[BSalty]

My wife has been making this same thing only in dry form since about Nov. It works very well.

[a.squibload]

Heard anything about a washing soda conspiracy?
Walmart shelves have a place for it, always empty
(several stores).
Finally found some at Ace, will try the recipe.

[BrassMagnet]

Heard anything about a washing soda conspiracy?
Walmart shelves have a place for it, always empty
(several stores).
Finally found some at Ace, will try the recipe.

Too many people wanting the product to save money. Too little store shelf space devoted to washinging soda combined with just-in-time (JIT) delivery. If enough is sold for a long enough time, they will increase the shelf space or the stocking quantity.
I ran into that with split peas. After a year, they increased their shelf stock from 20 to 30. I even had their JIT restocking time figured out.

[a.squibload]

Did it, turned out gloppy, like soup with blobs of jello.
Used a big funnel to pour into a soap jug.
After shaking it pours through the valve just fine.
Now to find some dirty clothes!

Edit: ran a load, works good &
no perfumy smell!
Will separate while sitting,
need to shake it each time.

[jimgun]

so will this recipe work in a HE front loader? as long as I am asking, maybe someone can explain the difference between an HE and standard washer? if it will work, i would guess a liquid would be the better product? thanks

[a.squibload]

I think a front-loader uses less water.
Don't know why this stuff wouldn't work.
An appliance repair guy said front-loader seals wear out
in a couple years and are very expensive to replace.

[hugh]

:wink:wife has been doing this for about 6 years now.it works great.thanks for posting this thread great idea

[fatelk]

Another plus for this stuff if for people with skin conditions. My son has some health issues and some allergies.

One thing that was a real bother for him was rough skin. We called it "alligator skin" and would sometimes rub lotion on him (he's 7). One of his doctors recommended special lotions, and my wife even tried several different brands of laundry detergent; unscented, etc..

A year or so ago she started making and using this home-made detergent. Within a week or two we noticed that his skin had cleared up, no more itchy, scratchy scales. His skin has been fine ever since. I was amazed. He was obviously allergic to something in the store bought detergent. He takes a couple different heavy-duty medications for arthritis, so clearing up the skin thing was a wonderful thing for him.

[Twinkiethekid]

Have to give this a shot, thanks for the recipe!

[possom813]

Another recipe using the same ingredients.

We've been using this for about a year now.


1 bar of fels-naptha
1.5 cups of borax
1.5 cups of washing powder
1 cup of any generic 'oxygen cleanser', only if you want to, it's not required.

We grate the naptha bar on a cheese grater first, then mix everything together, just using your hands to mix it up. Use the grater to make the soap as small as possible.

With the soap and powders hand mixed up, it's a good powder detergent that works well.

At this point it is ready to use, and it takes a tablespoon per load. Seriously, just a tablespoon does it.



The following steps are not necessary.

If you're a little ocd, like myself, you can add the powder to a blender a little at a time with the soap in it and make it even smaller. I do that, and then shake it through a 'splatter shield' that you put on top of your frying pan, and if it doesn't sift through that, I mix it back into the blender with the powder until it sifts through the screen.

Again, you don't have to do that, I just like it better this way.

[Jailer]

Hi guys, thought I'd jump in for a sec to pass on an opinion based upon what I've found at work, I do appliance repair for a living. One thing about soap and front loading washers, is that you only need a small amount. At least when it comes to commercial brands like Tide, etc, you only need to use about a tablespoon, and it has to be HE style. You may need to either pre-treat or use slightly more if you have really dirty clothes, or hard water, but for normal everyday non-"dirty" clothes, about 1 Tbsp is all you need. If you have a top loader, then you need to use more, because they are much less efficient and use a ton more water. As for power vs. liquid, I prefer liquid, because it disperses better. I can't tell you how many times I have worked on a customers front loader where they use powder, and when I opened the dispenser door, it was all coated with crusty soap, because the water blasting into the dispenser sprays it everywhere. One big issue with that, is that it brings soap in every time it fills with water, which you certainly don't want in the rinse cycle.

About stinking machines, this is caused by using too much soap. Some ppl unfortunately read the directions on the soap bottle, and use Way too much. Then within a year or so they find mold growing on their boot seal, and it's also growing in their tubs and tub to pump hoses. It's caused by too much soap, and it not rinsing out properly. I also do an extra rinse on every load I run, have for 15 years and never had an issue with odor in mine. With front loaders, you Don't want to see it sudsing up when it is washing, if you do, then you're using too much or the wrong type of soap. One easy way to tell if you are using too much soap in front loader is to run a cycle with nothing in it and no soap, pick the longest, hottest cycle it has, and watch it run. If at about 20-40 mins into the cycle you see anything other than hot water splashing around, you're using too much soap.

This is becoming a book, I'll leave it at that, but if you have a question about what I've mentioned, please feel free to ask, I'm happy to try and help. Especially in this section.

Liquid fabric softner is what did this to my top load. I started using my own home made mixture and it's been fine since.


Another plus for this stuff if for people with skin conditions. My son has some health issues and some allergies.

One thing that was a real bother for him was rough skin. We called it "alligator skin" and would sometimes rub lotion on him (he's 7). One of his doctors recommended special lotions, and my wife even tried several different brands of laundry detergent; unscented, etc..

A year or so ago she started making and using this home-made detergent. Within a week or two we noticed that his skin had cleared up, no more itchy, scratchy scales. His skin has been fine ever since. I was amazed. He was obviously allergic to something in the store bought detergent. He takes a couple different heavy-duty medications for arthritis, so clearing up the skin thing was a wonderful thing for him.

Start making your own home made CP soap and his skin will clear up even more.

drhall762, I found using a home made laundry soap that my white clothes were coming out dingy. I use the large box of Arm&Hammer dry soap and it's working fine and reletively cheap.

If you really want to make your home made soap work great add a little TSP to the mix.

[a.squibload]

A friend was out of laundry soap, I gave her a quart of this stuff,
she likes it, maybe I shoulda kept my mouth shut...

[a.squibload]

... Some ppl unfortunately read the directions on the soap bottle, and use Way too much...

Just remembered this, the local Consumer Advocate radio guy did a test on
laundry soap a few years ago, found little difference between a full cup, a half cup,
or no soap at all. Better with SOME soap of course.
Always follow directions if you wanna buy more product than you need!

[uscra112]

Left out one major ingredient - trisodium phosphate. TSP was the principle ingredient in most powdered laundry detergents (AND dishwasher dtergents) until a band of Chicken Littles in Washington (state) convinced the EPA to ban it. You can still buy it in the PAINT section of True Value hardware stores. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, other than TSP will strip the greasy film off kitchen walls prior to a repaint.

Add a level teaspoon to your dishwasher and see the magic return. Heaping teaspoon to the laundry if it;s a top-loader, level teaspoon if it's a front-loader. If you want to strip an old gunstock, run it thru the dishwasher set as hot as it will go, with straight TSP in the soap trays.

Washing soda is not a detergent, per se - what it does do is soften hard water so the detergent can do its' thing.

[mroliver77]

I have been using the dry formula for a year. I used to itch a lot. No more. I get my clothes greasy dirty at times and use pine cleaner with the laundry soap. Will look for the tsp. I was upset when WalMart stopped handling it.
J

[sparkz]

I made this stuff and have been washing my son Seans crusty pants from our farm here and works great and its every bit as good as per-mixed stuff on the cheap,, if you have not tryed this you may want to,, so that saved money can buy more boolits hahah

Patrick guy with crustie kid,,

[Smoke4320]

got to try this .. I have dry skin itch as well
thanks

[kmoomoo1]

Been making my own liquid laundry soap and also bar soap for over 10 years. Much less expensive than commercial! This is probably the best site out there for a beginner to learn the CORRECT way to do it for both types of soap: http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp For bar soap I prefer Babassu & Grapeseed Oils with Lauric Acid (kind of a pasty dry granule, not what you would expect). These can be purchased from numerous suppliers in a wide range of content size depending on how much you intend on making. A good rule of thumb is no more than 7-12 bars and 2 gallons of liquid per batch. When you use it up, make more. Remember, you will be making soap in it's truest form with no preservatives or chemicals. It won't have a shelf life beyond 6 months to a year. The thing is, soap is soap. Period. Whether it's Ivory, Dove, Irish Spring or any other brand it is all made with rendered oil/fat, lye and water. Anything else is for scent or shelf life, neither of which have ANY benefit when it comes to cleaning you or your clothing. If anyone has questions, drop me a line and I'll try to help out.