Homemade Laundry Detergent

It's Monday and laundry day around here. While everyday is laundry day in our large household, Monday is my BIG laundry day.



It's the day that I try to strip as many sheets off beds as possible. The older kids love Mondays as it's the day that they don't have to make their bed. They do have to bring up their comforters and hang them out on the deck and bring me their sheets and pillow cases though. I love Mondays because at the end of a long, tiring day, I fall into bed with crisp, clean sheets and if I have worked really hard, my pillow cases have been ironed with a spritz of lavender water. Oh heaven!

Since we do so much laundry, loads around here and we use tons of laundry detergent, this was one of the big things I wanted to address by becoming more frugal and certainly more green.


 



The products I use to make my detergent are simple and the bonus is, I don't use a new plastic jug of laundry detergent every 2 weeks. Yep, that's right. I normally go through a large jug of detergent every 2 weeks, so finding an alternative solution was important for our family. Even if you don't use as much detergent as we do though, you may still be wanting to find a less expensive alternative and one that isn't filling up our landfills.



Over the course of the last year, I have been playing around with a detergent recipe that works for my family and the level of clean I insist upon. Also, we have hard water to consider as well as an HE laundry team. I'm really happy with what I have come up with and I thought, this being laundry day, I would share my homemade detergent recipe with you and maybe if you aren't already swayed to make your own detergent, this blog post will entice you to try it out.

It takes literally 10 minutes to make this recipe which will last my family 2 months and costs peanuts compared to buying jugs of detergent from the store.

 

Here is what you need to make:  Hope's Homestead Laundry Detergent:

1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Oxi Clean product
1 bar of Ivory soap or other
pure or natural soap
Essential oil (opt)
4 cups of water
40 cups of hot water


Now if you are like me and you haven't been able to locate washing soda, it's really easy to make your own, which cuts down on more product and packaging because what you are going to use is a staple in your kitchen and in your natural cleaning supply shelf. It's baking soda.

Take 1 cups of baking soda, (I usually use 2 cups so I have enough for my washing soda jar since I also use washing soda to make my dishwasher detergent) and put it on a baking sheet.

 I spread it nice and thin and pop it in the oven at 400 to 425 degrees (everyone's oven is different) for an hour. When the timer goes off your baking soda has transformed into washing soda. Voila! Cool hey.














Once you have all your ingredients laid out, (Step 1) start by grating your bar of soap and the skies the limit as to the kind you use, but I would recommend a pure soap and one without colour.

I personally love the smell of ivory soap but the scent is also something to take into consideration. I noticed when I was at the grocery store the other day that there were bars of sunlight soap for sale which would be cool if you want that lemony scent in your laundry detergent but a 3 pack of ivory soap was the same price as the 1 bar of sunlight, so I went for frugal. Also, ivory soap reminds me of my babies.

Step 1, grate your soap

 

 

Step 2. Boil 4 cups of water in a shallow pan and add your grated soap. I add mine slowly until it is evenly melted and the water is foamy. This can boil over and make a mess so watch it closely.

Step 3. Find a large pail, preferably with a lid and pour 40 cups of hot water in the pail.

I found that an ice cream bucket holds about 10 cups of water, so I would add 4 buckets of HOT water to my larger bucket. I use an old diaper pail, which is the perfect size and fits nicely in my laundry room. Our little girls are still in diapers at night but we go through so few now that the pail is redundant. One thing about growing children, this is ONE area that I'm not feeling bittersweet about, saying goodbye to diapers.

It's important you find a bucket with a lid because if your kids are like mine, they will drop things inside, plus there is always the concern of children drowning in buckets with liquid. (or animals)

Once you have filled your large bucket with 40 cups of HOT water, (Step 4), you can add 1 cup of borax, 1 cup of washing soda and 1 cup of your oxi clean product. Mix them in the water until they have dissolved really well.















Step 5. You can now add the foamy soapy water mixture from you pan. Be careful as this can easily splash and burn you. My little one is looking on so I was being very slow and careful as I poured it into the bucket. I normally make this after the kids are in bed for the night. It takes even less time and it's all ready to go in the morning when I start washing all over again.

And now for the final step, (Step 6) mix it ALL really well. I use a long wooden spoon to stir it.

That's it! Close the lid and leave it over night to set up.

In the morning you will find that it has thickened considerably and has a layer of gel like soap on the top. I mix it again really well and at this point I add my essential oil to the mix. Lavender is my all time favourite as it's also a disinfectant but you can choose whatever you would like...or nothing at all. Personally, I love the ivory along with the lavender but let your nose be your guide.

The final thing I do, is put some detergent into a reusable jug above my washer and dryer. If I have to pre-soak some extra dirty clothes before washing, the jug makes it easy for me to grab. I have a sink next to my washing machine and I keep a bucket there for any items that need to pre-soak. I have to tell you that I use this detergent to clean our children's all in one, Kawaii's cloth diapers without any problem. They have never lost their absorbency and they wash up beautifully. I always pre-soak the diapers before washing as well in this mixture.

For my HE washing machine, I just add whatever amount needed depending on the load of clothes I'm washing.

Two scoops usually does the job. The scoop I use is shown above, next to the jug of detergent.

Happy Washing! I'm grateful to have a laundry basket full of dirty clothes. When my kids come in from outside dirty, I know they have been having fun.



Well, that was a good days work and boy am I ready for those clean sheets tonight.

Thanks for joining me today. Let me know whether I have converted you to the cleaner/greener side of life.



Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope