DIY Laundry Detergent

It wasn't hard to find a DIY laundry detergent recipe online. I got my particular one from Do It Yourself Naturally, and it was easy as pie. I don't know what to love most about this project. The fact that it costs a fraction of what store bought laundry detergent does? The fact that there's no icky, unpronounceable chemicals in it? The fact that the scent doesn't make me sick, unlike so many store bought detergents? It emphasizes what we mean with radical homemaking: economy, ecology, and personal touch.

First, the ingredients.

I bought the following, and though Target didn't have Washing Soda, Giant did. I'm glad my hunch was right, that Giant would have Washing Soda since it falls under the general category of "weird old lady things," which Giant always seems to have. Our Giant also has canned octopus, FYI.

20-Mule Team Borax - 76 ounces - $3.49
Ivory Bar Soap - 10 bars - $5.15
Arm & Hammer Washing Soda - 55 ounces - $3.49

After some complicated math, I figured that my batch ended up costing about $.04 per load. My favorite store- bought detergent, Method's concentrated Spring Daisy liquid, is $7.99 for 64 loads. That works out to about $.12 per load. So this detergent, which took me 15 minutes to make, costs one third of what my store bought alternative does.


Gather your ingredients. (The wine is optional.)




Grate one bar of the soap with an ordinary cheese grater. The finer the better, since you'll be stirring later to turn the grated soap into a powder. Don't grate your fingers.




Add one cup of washing soda and one cup of borax to the grated soap. Stir until it all turns into a nice powder. I used a large serving fork and a lot of very fast stirring. Store as you please, I used an old Greek yogurt container (there was a little left over I put in another container).




Some Notes:

1. Ivory Soap bars are lightly scented. I personally like this scent, but if you are sensitive to such things, you can find another plain bar soap.

2. I added a few drops of eucalyptus essential oil to my wash load. I love fresh laundry scent, but I don't want a lot of chemicals. FYI, I also use a few drops of eucalyptus oil mixed with water in a spray bottle as a linen spray/anti-Febreeze.

3. There are a lot of apparently great recipes for liquid DIY laundry detergent too. The reason I didn't make it is because you need to store a larger mass of detergent. Every recipe recommends a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. But if you've got the storage space, and a preference for liquid detergents, I'd love to know how it turns out.

4. This detergent is very low-suds. So if you're like me and you keep peeking at your first load for "proof" that it's working, you'll be disappointed. The proof, in this case, is in the yummy smelling, clean clothes you get when you're done. Enjoy.

5. It is important to get the powder very fine. This is difficult with the grated soap, but the borax, being abrasive, helps. If your powder isn't fine enough, there will be white soap spots on your clothes. For good measure (and out of laziness), I gave the mixture a whirl in my food processor.


So did it work?

Yes.

The first load I washed was my bedding, it worked great. This detergent is fine for front-loading HE washing machines, which I do not have. I live in an apartment in DC and I'm fairly certain my washing machine and dryer are from the 1980s. But they work (with the help of a bobby-pin fix my roommate Linsey ingeniously thought up for the washer), and I'm grateful for them.