Home-made Laundry Detergent

I have been anxiously waiting to share this post with all of you...

I have officially started making my own laundry detergent.  I was hesitant for so many reasons to do this but mostly because we have an HE washer and dryer and I think my husband would kill me if I messed up our washer.

So...I have done LOTS of research, including: liquid verses powder, effects on HE washer with both, and different recipes.  I have had a hard time finding someone I personally know who has done this with the same type washer I have.  Finally..one day my friend made this post. I included some of her resources in my research and decided to give it a try.

I first started off by marking on my regular detergent to see how many loads I could get out of the expensive stuff.  As you can see...44 was my grand total on a bottle of Tide that SAYS you are suppose to get 64 loads. That breaks down to 27 cents a load.

The recipe:

• one - 4 lb. box of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

• one - 4 lb. box of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda

• one - 4 lb. box of Mule Team Borax

•   3 bars of Fels Naptha soap

•  a container to store it in

*The total for all these ingredients was $12.

First step..cut up your bars of soap.  If your knife is sharp...it really is easy. 

I didn't even have to put any muscle behind it.  Was kind of like cutting cheese.

Next I blended it up fine in my food processor.  

This took the longest amount of time..which wasn't long.

Note:  Since making this post in January, I have made a second batch of detergent.  I'm still just as satisfied; however, the second time around, I blended the soap until it was super fine (see pic below).  I would say I like this better b/c with the first batch, every now and then, there would be a white splotch on dark jeans or my husbands work pants.  I could always wipe it off with a wet rag, but it was more annoying than anything.

This time around, since I got the soap really fine, I haven't had that problem at all.  Like, it's so fine, I used a sifter to make sure there were no little balls of soap anywhere, prior to mixing it with the other ingredients.

FYI...the Arm & Hammer Washing soda only comes in 3# boxes.  

So, I bought two boxes and measured out an extra pound of soap 

(accounting for how heavy the container is I used to measure it into)

Finally...just mix it up in your big container..YOU'RE DONE!

It ended up taking me around 30 minutes, 

but after doing the math on how much it saves our family...I'm sold!

I ended up getting 207 loads from my homemade detergent which comes down to 5 cents a load.  So I went from 27 cents a load to 5 cents...I'm no genius, but that's pretty good savings!

A few tips:

• I add 1.5 T to each load.  It doesn't take much.  I leave a 1T size scoop in there.  Fill it up once and then fill it up halfway and pour over our clothes.
• Don't add in between clothes when loading the washer.  With HE washers, it uses less water and I have found doesn't disolve all the ingredients very well if I don't add on top of the clothes at the very end.
• I have read a lot about adding to the detergent dispenser verses just throwing on top of clothes. Some people have reported it clogged their dispenser because of the low water usage.  I haven't had one single problem with adding it on top of my clothes.
• I use fabric softener with each load.  This recipe does not have a smell at all. I like that yummy clean smell to my clothes when I wash them and was able to fix that with using fabric softener or dryer sheets.  I have used both.  I figure I'm saving on the detergent so buying one of those is worth it.
• I have a friend who recommended using Purex fabric softener crystals.  She just mixes it in with her detergent.  I haven't added them to my detergent yet, only because I was making sure we don't have any allergies to it, so I add them separate, but will probably add to my recipe next go around.