The biggest thing to remember when you start making your own things is that you have to allow yourself room to tweak and change. After-all, that is the beauty of making your own things, you get to "make it your own". You may find that you need to tweak things to make it work out how you want it to. Water quality can really affect how well any laundry detergent works.
So basically there are a handful of general ingredients that go into a basic laundry detergent powder:
- Borax - it has a number of purposes, but mainly just really cleans your laundry! Borax can be found on the laundry aisle of most supermarket or Wal-Mart type stores. often people get worried because Borax is "Toxic". Yes, like most chemicals, Borax is toxic if ingested - so please if you will be inclined to eat your laundry or mix your powdered detergent with your morning cereal you should not use Borax, and you may want to seek professional help!
- Washing Soda - similar to baking soda but a little different. It has tons of uses and is excellent at getting laundry clean - very clean! Washing Soda is generally found on the laundry aisle of most supermarkets. It is different from baking soda, so be sure to get Washing Soda. If you simply cannot find washing soda you can make your own washing soda by baking traditional baking soda in the oven. You can google it to find dozens of sites with instructions; here is an example.
- A laundry soap of some sort - This is where most recipes vary IMO. There are really two main soaps that are specifically promoted as laundry soaps - Fels-Naptha and Zote. I have used both and honestly the jury is still out as to which one has superior cleaning power. Many people use other soaps such as a standard bar of ivory soap or a castile soap such as Dr. Bronner's or Kirk's Castile Soap, but I have not personally tried other soap varieties. laundry soaps are usually found on the laundry aisle. FYI: I find it is easier to grate a soap that has been in the freezer!
- Oxygen (peroxide based) cleaner such as Oxi Clean Laundry booster - I add this to my mix because I feel like it helps preserve the color integrity of my laundry. It may very well be my imagination but I feel like it helps keep my colors nice and bright. I buy the store brand when possible because Oxi Clean brand can be a little pricey if you are trying to be cost efficient. *Update*: I have made several batches minus the oxiclean and they clean just as wonderfully. If I have some on hand I toss it in to my mix if not I make it without!
Potential Benefits
First, you should know that I am using a top loading (non HE) washing machine. I have several friends who use this in HE washers and it works great, but I cannot personally testify to that. I can however tell you that the reason HE washers have special detergents is because HE washers require a "low suds" formula. well, good news, homemade laundry detergent is basically suds-less! Newsflash: Suds are not required to clean things!! Second, I have always used liquid detergents because commercial powder detergents never seems to dissolve well and I just had vision of pipes clogged with chunks of hard as a rock detergent. The homemade powder is a very fine powder and for me it seems to dissolve beautifully. I have not had any problem with it not dissolving. As a matter of fact, I had been fighting a musty odor in my washer that I think was caused by the build up of commercial detergents inside the washer. Since switching to my own detergent my washer has completely lost the musty odor and is sparkly clean. Lastly, this detergent has no added strong perfumes. The soaps have a "clean" odor, but not overpowering. I find it to work out nicely for my super sensitive skin. Everyone is different, but I really feel like this mixture is a pretty mild detergent.
Fels naptha and Zote are two different sized bars so I am providing you with two separate recipes so that all of your measurements are accurate.
Recipe Using Fels-Naptha Soap:
1 bar of fels naptha (grated)
1 cup of borax
1 cup of washing soda
1 cup of oxi-clean (optional)
Directions:
Mix these ingredients together in a bowl. You will be more pleased with your final product if you throw this mixture into your food processor or blender and blend it up real fine. It will work without this step but because of the weight of the soap it seems to always end up in one layer on top of the other powders. If you blend this all up together you powder will be beautifully distributed throughout your detergent. Store this in an airtight container to avoid clumping. I use the small measuring cup that comes with the oxi clean as my laundry detergent scooper. I use one scoop for all my loads unless it is an extremely soiled load or excessively large load.
Recipe Using Zote (pink or white)
1 bar of Zote (grated)
2.5 cups of borax
2.5 cups of washing soda
2.5 cups of oxi-clean
Directions:
Mix these ingredients together in a bowl. You will be more pleased with your final product if you throw this mixture into your food processor or blender and blend it up real fine. It will work without this step but because of the weight of the soap it seems to always end up in one layer on top of the other powders. If you blend this all up together you powder will be beautifully distributed throughout your detergent. Store this in an airtight container to avoid clumping. I use the small measuring cup that comes with the oxi clean as my laundry detergent scooper. I use one scoop for all my loads unless it is an extremely soiled load or excessively large load.
I always recommend making just a standard size batch to try this out. If you love it, like I am sure you will, then start making a bigger batch so it will last longer. Once you make this a few times you will find that it really is not time intensive at all! Feel free to ask questions, I will answer them to the best of my ability. :)
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