Homemade Laundry Detergent

Deanna Ritz
by Deanna Ritz
Since I have been on Pinterest, for about a year and a half, I have wanted to make my own laundry detergent. I have continued to see pins on so many different ways to make "the best" homemade detergent. Well about a month ago I was reading Love Pomegranate House, a blog that I follow, and she made her own detergent and made it sound very easy and effective. So, I thought I'd give it a try.
It takes 5 easy ingredients: Borax, Washing Soda, Purex Crystals, Oxi Clean, and a Laundry Bar of soap. Easy enough right?? While I was shopping for the ingredients I couldn't find the laundry bar of soap or the washing soda at my first stop so I asked a girl that worked there for some help. After asking her for these two items, and telling her I was making my own detergent, you should have seen the look on her face!! She looked at me like I had just gotten out of my horse drawn carriage!! She said, "why on earth would you make your own detergent when you can buy a box already made???" I wanted to crawl into a hole!! I wasn't really sure at this point why I was making my own other than the fact that everyone else is doing it on Pinterest right???
Well, after coming home and putting my detergent together and doing my first load I can now tell you that it is a VERY good feeling to make your own and have your wash turn out looking great and smelling fantastic. I am very proud of making my own and I am saving a ton of money this way too. We have a family of six and I do laundry ALL of the time! At 1-2 tablespoons a load I am thinking it is going to last a long time.
Here are the measurements:
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing soda
1/2 cup Powdered Oxi Clean
1/3 cup Scented Laundry Crystal (I used Purex)
1 bar Laundry Soap (I used Fels-Naptha. I found it at Wal-Mart)
Mix the first four ingredients into a container. Then you will need to grate the bar of soap with a cheese grater. Stir it all together and you are done. When I was at Wal-Mart I saw a super pretty 2 gallon clear canister that screamed out at me, "I want to hold your detergent!!" so I had to buy it of course. :) Well, once I put my first batch in it filled up like an 1/8th of the canister. So I went ahead and made 5 more batches using up all of my washing soda, Purex crystals, and 6 bars of soap. It is now a very full beautiful detergent container. :)
Deanna Ritz
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Dianne Methner Dianne Methner on Oct 24, 2014
    We add a huge bottle if Dawn dish soap into mixture that makes a 5 gallon bucket. We also add color safe powdered bleach. Cleans everything and use as preset on bad stains and then wash next day. Most stains are gone.
  • Pat C Pat C on Jan 04, 2015
    I heard it was ok to use with HE washers as it doesn't get sudsy so good for septic tanks,too
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