Throughout the past few years, I’ve been researching on how to make homemade laundry detergent. When I started researching it, I only had the boys. Monkey was still in diapers, and had skin sensitivities to so many products, including a majority of baby washes and lotions on the shelf at your local big box store.
At the time, I had done multiple Google searches on homemade laundry detergents, and came up with far too many variations. Most of these recipes required me to melt soap down, and do what seemed to be a chemistry experiment in my kitchen, with my cooking supplies.The recipes that didn’t need a makeshift chemistry lab had some ingredients rated as not safe for cloth diapers. There wound up being so many variations that I just gave up and continued to buy the one {expensive} laundry detergent that worked for Monkey’s skin and got our cloth diapers clean.
Fast forward a few years later. Monkey was out of diapers, and Lady Bug was in diapers. As I was thinking about other areas I could cut our spending, the laundry room seemed like the next obvious choice. It feels like I’m constantly doing laundry, and my mother-in-law doesn’t help when she tells me as much. She isn’t too far off since we don’t use paper towels or napkins, and have lots of towels to use.
As a matter of fact, when my kids were in cloth diapers, I was known to go through 14 loads of laundry per week and not even bat an eye! Cutting back on our laundry detergent expenses and making a homemade laundry detergent seemed like the natural next step.
When I started researching my current concoction, I wanted something that not only would save money, but would be simple to make and was cloth diaper safe. There is a tad bit of measuring here and grating there, but this is about as simple as it comes without creating a chemistry experiment in my kitchen.
Homemade Laundry Detergent Cost:
In order for this to be something that we were going to continue doing, I needed to know it was going to be worth doing in the first place. There’s no point in making a huge batch of something that may or may not save us money. Here’s a breakdown for the ingredients that I used at the prices in my area.
(1) 4lb box of Baking Soda {found in the laundry detergent aisle}; $2.24
(1) 3lb 7oz box of Super Washing Soda {found in the laundry aisle}; $3.24
(1) 4lb 12oz box of Borax {found in the laundry aisle}; $3.99
(2) 4.25oz bars of Yardley Soap; $0.44 each
Optional – 2 cups (about 2 pounds) of OxiClean; $1.70
Total Cost: $12.05!
How To Make Homemade Laundry Detergent:
Grate your bars of soap. This will take the longest amount of time.
If you have a food processor with a grater attachment, by all means, please cut up your soap into chunks and run it through the food processor a few times. I lost the ONE piece that allows my grater attachment to secure to the lid when we moved. Needless to say, I’m out of luck and have to do it the harder way, with a bit of elbow grease.
When I was researching various detergent recipes, most of them used bars of Zote or Fels Naptha, which are bars of laundry soap. After researching them further, I had decided against using them since they both contained ingredients that were not safe for cloth diapers, as well as ingredients that would aggravate Monkey’s skin sensitivities. Yardley is a soap company that uses natural ingredients, as well as essential oils, and I knew that using these bars of soap would not cause issues with Monkey’s skin.
Add all the ingredients to a large bin and mix thoroughly. I use a 27 quart Rubbermaid from Target; it’s large enough to hold a double batch. I suggest layering the ingredients to allow for an easier time mixing the ingredients evenly.
Once all the ingredients are mixed together evenly, you’re done!
Store your laundry detergent in an airtight container. I store it in a flip top container I found in the kitchen section of Target a few years back. I don’t want to open up the huge Rubbermaid container each time I’m doing laundry.
This detergent makes roughly 15 pounds of detergent. For your regular load of laundry, you use 1 tablespoon of this detergent. If you have a larger load of laundry, or really dirty clothes, you can use 2 tablespoons of detergent. Jeans and towels always fit the bill for really dirty laundry in this family. And yep, I said tablespoons.
According to my trust digital kitchen scale, a tablespoon of the detergent weighs about 0.03 lbs. That’s enough for 500 loads and costs me $0.02 per load. To get the same amount of loads from the detergent we bought before, I would have to spend $89.95. That’s a whopping $77.90 saved, just by doing laundry!
If I were still doing 14 loads of laundry a week, one batch would be enough for nearly 9 months worth of laundry. Hello savings!
I have to say, this recipe won me over a lot faster than experimenting in my kitchen!
Have you started making a homemade laundry detergent? What are some other ways you’re reducing your expenses around the house?
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