Homemade Laundry Detergent

Looking for ways to save a little more money this year?  Well, how about switching to homemade laundry detergent?  It's super quick and simple and it's sure to save you some major $$$ over the course of the year.  

I've been using homemade detergent for over a year now and LOVE it!  I've made liquid and powder.  Both work really well, but who needs more than 5 gallons of detergent sitting around at once?!  I find this smaller batch of the powder to be more than enough.  It takes less than 10 minutes to make and lasts for over a month - and we do a LOT of laundry!  I was able to find all of the ingredients at ACE hardware or my other local Hardware stores - sometimes the larger "box" stores don't carry the washing soda...if they don't that's just one more reason to go support the smaller businesses. :) 

Homemade Laundry Detergent

What's In It:

1 bar Zote Soap or Fels Naptha Soap

1 1/3 c Washing Soda

1 1/3 c Borax

1/3 c Baking Soda

What To Do With It:

Shred soap using a cheese grater or just chop it up into chunks.  Put soap into a food processor or blender to turn the soap into coarse crumbs.  Combine remaining ingredients - I just shake everything together.  Be sure to give the container a quick shake before each use.

I have an HE front loading machine and I throw in about a tablespoon and half into each load of laundry.  I don't have any issues with stains, etc. and we are play in the dirt, wear our food, type of folk here at the Hive. :)

**Note, this detergent is not for cloth diapers.  Please use this recipe for cd's. 

Here are a few pictures to help illustrate the steps:

This is what your shredded soap will look like (for this batch I used Zote soap)

This is what the soap will look like after it's been run through the food processor

This is the finished product.