Homemade Laundry Detergent - Only $3.50 for 4 Gallons!

The recipe I ended up with calls for:

Half a bar of grated soap

1 cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 cup of Borax

4 – 1 Gallon Jugs

Put a big pot on the stove with about half a gallon of water in it and add all three ingredients, use a long handled spoon and DON’T boil it! If you let it get too hot you will have lots and lots of suds all over your kitchen and end up with an incredibly clean stove! Just keep stirring it around medium or lower heat until everything dissolves. Let it cool a little (If you let it cool too much it will become gelatinous) and then use a funnel and evenly distribute the laundry detergent into the four 1 gallon jugs and then carefully fill them up the rest of the way with your sink water running as hot as possible. (If you add cold water to it it will become chunky but still work.) Be careful filling them because there will be lots of suds! I usually just do a hot water trickle back and forth between them until they’re full and then you are done! Give it a shake before you use it and just add as much as you normally would any other kind of laundry detergent. Seriously: 4 gallons of laundry detergent for only $3.50!

Wonder why I have a bottle of vinegar in the pictures too? I use it as fabric softener! Anywhere on your washing machine where you would normally put in liquid fabric softener just add a tablespoon of white vinegar instead. It’s all you need! No more fabric sheets, no more buying expensive liquid fabric softener – just use a little white vinegar! Bonus: the white vinegar has the added benefit of helping keep your washing machine clean and mold free as well.

(To buy the same amount of Tide Laundry Detergent at our local grocery (4 gallons) would be nearly $50!)

Four gallons lasts around four months so, as of right now, we’re only spending $10.50 a year on laundry detergent! Vinegar is incredibly inexpensive as well and I literally have not had a break out on my back since I started using it and that’s worth so much to me! If you have skin problems or “bacne” I would really urge you to try this!

Have you checked out my recipe for dishwasher detergent? It’s only .10 a load and it absolutely beat our hard water problem. You can check it out here: