Homemade Laundry Detergent

In my quest to find products suitable for my daughter with extra sensitive skin, I decided to make laundry detergent.  People have been making their own detergent for years, so this is nothing new, and not my own recipe.  However, I share it with you because I have found it to work, and it's definitely less expensive than purchasing your own detergent.

Typically, I like to use liquid detergent, but the recipes for this kind require boiling soap and I wanted something that was quick and wouldn't smell up the house.  Sew Much Ado is a great blog for primarily sewing projects, but she had a detergent recipe that she came up with after trying several different ones.  I took her word for it, and chose to use this one.  You can find her post here where you'll also find a label print out for your detergent container, if you decide to make your own.

Homemade Laundry Detergent
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda (this is different from baking soda)
1/4 cup Baking Soda
1 bar Fels-Naptha soap

Directions:  Using a sharp knife, cut the Fels-Naptha bar of soap into large chunks and then place those in a food processor.

Grind this into a coarse powder.  (You can also grate the soap first, and then place it in the food processor; I did it both ways and preferred just using the processor because it took less time).

Stir all ingredients in a large bowl.  Store in an airtight container.  Use 2 tablespoons per load of laundry.

One batch of this will yield approximately 36 loads, and after calculating the costs, one batch cost $1.81, which comes out to $0.05 a load.  I find this to be a great price, plus the ingredients are all natural, so even the most sensitive skinned people should handle it well.

*The Fels-Naptha is a fragrance free soap, but it does still have a strong soapy smell.  If you should decide to make this, and smells bother you, you've been forewarned.  

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

In an effort to be a savvy shopper, I've been using my coupons carefully over the past few months.  We don't buy a lot of packaged foods, so the coupons most helpful for me are for toiletries, paper products, and cereal.   I decided to try a new kind of dishwasher detergent, simply because I had a $1 off coupon and it was an eco-friendly brand.  I'm not satisfied with it.  So, I've begun the search for a new one.

Some of my search for new detergent stems from the fact that our second little, M, has extremely sensitive skin.  In an effort to relieve her of some discomfort, I'm trying to remove as many chemical products as we can from our home.  Guess you could say I'm going a little 'greener'.

I decided to give homemade detergent a try.  I found a recipe on Mom Advice and tried it out.  Here's the recipe:

1 cup of Borax (you can find this in the laundry detergent aisle at most grocery stores, Wal-Mart and Target)
1 cup baking soda
1/4 cup salt

Use one tablespoon for each cycle.  You can also use vinegar as a rinse aid by pouring into the appropriate compartment in your machine until it reaches the fill line.  Store detergent in an airtight container.

It cost me $0.67  to make this one recipe, and this one recipe will last approximately 20 cycles, equaling to $0.03 a cycle.  (I didn't include the price for vinegar in this calculation, but one large bottle from Wal-Mart is $2.32, and I'm pretty sure that would last you a really long time!)  Not only is this 'green', but it's also more economical!

For the skeptics:  I've been using this all week and my dishes are clean, glasses are spotless.  I even did one cycle without pre-rinsing, and I was shocked at how well it did!  I will probably continue to pre-rinse, but you wouldn't have to.  Why go to the trouble of making it?  It takes about 2 minutes to stir all of the ingredients together, so I think that's definitely worth it.  Even if you're an 'extreme couponer', you still probably spend more than $0.67 for a pack of Cascade tablets.

Let me know if you try it out!

I read some things that stated the type of water you have (whether soft or hard) can affect the quality of this recipe.