Tightwad Tuesday: Homemade Laundry Detergent
Posted by Lynnae on March 4, 2008
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Homemade laundry detergent can save you money!
Laundry can take up a lot of time, money and energy. I’m always on the lookout for ways to save money on washing and drying clothing. I do things like re-wear clothes before washing them, cutting dryer sheets in half, and line drying my clothes when the weather is nice outside. I thought I was doing well.
Then I wrote a post about homemade cleaning products a few weeks ago. Jessica, one of my readers, left the following comment:
I make my own laundry soap! Here’s the recipe:
1 bar bath soap
1 cup washing soda
1 cup baking soda
1 cup 20 Mule Team BoraxGrind together in your food processor. Use 2 Tablespoons for a full load. I also use it for general housekeeping. It costs 2 or 3 cents per use.
I also use Dawn to fight laundry stains, and white vinegar as a fabric softener. (The smell disappears when the clothes dry.)
White vinegar is so versatile! I love using it as a rinse aid in my dishwasher, as well as for keeping ants off my counters. (Bugs can’t stand the taste of acid.)
Your blog is awesome, Lynnae–keep up the good work!
Thanks for the compliment on my blog, Jessica. Now it’s time for me to thank you. I thought I’d do a comparison between my usual laundry detergent and Jessica’s recipe. I was skeptical, because I’ve made my own liquid laundry detergent before, and I was less than impressed. It took a long time to make, too. Still, I had to try.
I made one small adjustment to the recipe. Instead of using bath soap, I used 1 bar of Fels Naptha. It’s a soap especially made for laundry, and it really cleans things.
I used the food processor to grind everything up, just like Jessica recommended, and this laundry detergent literally took me 5 minutes to make. It was so easy!
Still, I didn’t know how it would work. So far I’ve used it on 4 loads of laundry, and it’s worked really well! I don’t think I’ll be going back to the commercial stuff anytime soon.
Let’s break down the cost. I didn’t have any of the ingredients on hand, so I bought everything last Wednesday.
I bought one bar of Fels Naptha and used the whole bar. Cost: $1.19.
A 3.5 box of Washing Soda is 7 1/3 cups and cost me $2.39. I used 1 cup, which comes to 33 cents.
I bought 1 4-lb box of baking soda, which contains 8 1/3 cups. I paid $2.12 for the box. The recipe uses one cup, so that comes to roughly 25 cents for the baking soda.
Finally, I bought a 4 lb 12 oz. box of Borax for $2.67. The box contains 9.9 cups, and I used one. Cost of one cup: 27 cents.
The total cost for one batch of homemade laundry detergent was $2.04. So far, very good! The recipe made 3 cups of laundry detergent. There are 16 tablespoons in a cup, so there were 48 tablespoons in the recipe. At 2 tablespoons per load, that’s 24 loads of laundry.
Total cost per load: 8 and 1/2 cents. That’s roughly the same as the Arm & Hammer laundry detergent I normally buy. The Arm & Hammer came to 8 and 2/3 cents a load for a $6.99 box that washes 80 loads.
However, I think the homemade stuff has been cleaning better. It’s also not heavily scented, and I’m not trashing the environment by continuing to buy boxes of detergent. Plus, I can use the baking soda and borax for other cleaning tasks, so I’m not buying lots of different products. That saves much needed space in my cupboard.
The verdict: Though the actual cost of the two detergents is about the same, the homemade detergent saves on both packaging and space in my home. It’s more natural, too. And if you were to use regular bath soap instead of Fels Naptha, the cost would definitely be less than store bought detergent, since the Fels Naptha was by far the most expensive ingredient. I’ve heard Zote works well for laundry, too, but I’ve never seen it around here.
The Winner: Jessica’s homemade laundry detergent! Thanks for the tip, Jessica!
Now I need to dry Dawn as a stain remover and vinegar as a fabric softener!
For other versions of homemade laundry detergent, see the following sites:
How do you save money on laundry? Share your tips in the comments!
Photo by *clairity*.
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35 Responses to “Tightwad Tuesday: Homemade Laundry Detergent”
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I am not a financial expert. I'm just a wife and mom doing the best I can to live a frugal life and get out of debt. Like any human, I make mistakes. I write this blog out of my own experiences, and nothing I write should be taken as expert advice. If you need financial advice, please consult a professional.
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I have a few questions.
1. Where did you get the ingredients? I use Borax in addition to laundry detergent, but where do you find the other stuff?
2. How easy was this to clean out of your food processor?
Thanks this is a fun site!
I also make my own laundry soap. I love it. It is non sudsing and it cleans my clothes without the added extra scents that regular detergents leave behind. Plus it is great for my sensitive skin. My receipe:
1/2 bar Fels Naptha Soap grated (I use a grater I got at dollar store cause it seems to reatin soap taste.)
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
big pot
5 gallon bucket
put 4 cups water & grated soap in big pot and cook over low heat until all mixed (stir alot)
once soap is dissolved add 1 cup borax
pour mixture into 5 gallon bucket
add 3 gallons hot water from tap
stir
stir in 1 cup washing soda
mix well
let set 24 hours
this will be a gel, not really liquid or solid.
This can fill 3 empty 100oz. laundry detergent bottles, and then some. Great cost, great product. No suds, but cleans great. Takes a alittle time to make but works out to like .4 cents a load.
Thanks! -Becky R in NJ
This is very good information. I’ve never made my own laundry detergent, but I’d like to try. Hmmm, I’m a bit unclear on the washing soda, I’m afraid. Where can I find this? Is there a certain brand?
Thanks!
I have never been able to find washing soda anywhere! I have seen Zote before but I can’t justify buying the ingredients online and paying shipping costs.
My strategy is to maximize coupons and shop at either CVS or Walgreens. This week I was able to get bottles of Tide for only $.50 each after I worked a few deals. I bought 8 bottles and am stocked up for awhile.
For those looking for ingredients, the washing soda is Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda. I can get both the Washing Soda and the Fels Naptha at both Fred Meyer and Winco, but I think both of those stores are pretty much only in the Pacific Northwest, so I’m not sure that helps much.
And it probably would not be worth it to buy the ingredients online and pay shipping.
Here’s what the Washing Soda looks like:
http://www.soapsgonebuy.com/Pr.....ow=ExtInfo
And you can click on the Fels Naptha link in my post to see what that looks like. It’s always nice to know what you’re looking for.
I’ve been using homemade laundry detergent for a few years now and have tried different variations of ingredients and found the right amount of each to get my clothes really clean, the recipe I use is here:
http://christianhomekeeper.blo.....rgent.html
Bev
@Bev - Thanks for sharing your recipe. I know some people really like the liquid recipes, but I’ve always been more of a powdered laundry detergent gal. Plus, I have a hard time finding room to store a big bucket.
This is pretty cool, I will definitely try it. I have been trying to use all homemade cleaning products, but have never tried a home made laundry detergent before. If it saves me some time and space in my cupboard, I am on board! I do roughly 20 loads a week!!!! That can really add up!
Take Care
LJ
I’ve been thinking about trying homemade detergent for a while… but I was wondering if it was safe for high-efficiency washers? I’ve heard that lots of suds can be damaging for HE washers…
thanks!
Hi Lynnae,
Any idea how this compares to Sam’s detergent in the big bucket. I’ve used this for serveral years and it’s pretty economical. It does however fade colors after a while. Thanks for the recipe - I may try it out.
Blessings!
@michelleh - I really don’t know how it compares to Sams. We don’t have a Sam’s Club here, so I’ve never tried it.
This is so GREAT! When I run out of laundry detergent (2010??) I will do this, lol. My dad bought my and my sister laundry detergent and dryer sheets in bunk in 2005 and I haven’t run out yet! I have to say: Dad - that was a great housewarming gift
Two questions:
what is washing soda
and what is borax?
I live in Germany and we can get baking soda here… we need the chemical names… (baking soda is bicarbonat)
I’ve been thinking about this, but as of yet haven’t had a reason to try it. It only costs me 3 cents a load (or less) to do laundry anyway. (Or at least it will for the next year since that is how much detergent on hand.) I combined sales and coupons and only use 1/4 to 1/2 of the recommended amt. of detergent and my laundry still comes clean.
Have you tried using 1/2 of the homemade stuff? I was wondering if it would still work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borax
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_carbonate
@Lisa, I’ve only been using this for about a week, so I haven’t experimented with amounts yet. It seems from reading other laundry detergent recipes that I could probably get by with only using 1/2 bar of the Fels Naptha when I make the detergent. If I can’t cut back the amount of my recipe that I use per load, I may try using less Fels Naptha next time, which would make each load considerably cheaper.
Thanks so much for the tip to check wikipedia… they have also got many articles in German and you can see if someone has already submitted an article on your choice subject by hitting the appropriate language button in the right side bar…
so now I have the absolute information I need… now just to get down to finding out where to get this stuf…!
Unfortunately, our food processor doesn’t do well with liquids. It doesn’t seal right (works for carrots and such, though). But I’ll remember this anyway, in case someday I have one.
I like the idea of making my own detergent. I’m not too keen on having to buy the Borax. What I plan to do is to drive down to Death Valley and obtain my own borax from there. That way I can do not have to pay for any commercial ingredients.
Great recipe! Also Borax is a great bug deterrent. Just sprinkle a ring of borax around your foundation to keep ants and other creepy crawlies away. When I lived in a small room in College (in Boston) there were roaches everywhere, so after I swept my room, I would sprinkle borax all around the walls and no more roaches. And put the washing soda mixed in water with some aluminum foil on the bottom of any non-metallic container (i.e. glass or plastic) and put in your silver, tarnish will be gone!
Thanks, this is great. Will see where I can get the ingredients and have a go. I use vinegar for fab softener but haven’t tried washing powder yet.
Just be safe! and informed re borax.
http://www.strobel.com/studies.htm
Hey, I’m an editor at sk*rt and added this article. Thanks!
I use only cold water for laundry to save electricity. Would this work in cold water or needs warm, or hot water to work?
I have been using this recipe for about two years now, and have had no problems with it in cold water. My only complaint is that my whites don’t come out as white. Had anyone else seen this?
I too make my own laundry soap using ZOTE; it can be found at Latin or Mexican stores and usually cost around $1.49 per bar. It cleans really well and has a nice clean scent.
I don’t make my own laundry detergent, because I’ve been pretty happy with the prices I’ve gotten for different brand liquid laundry detergents that have a version free of dyes and scents. I am very sensitive to those. I prefer the liquid detergents for their ability to instantly dissolve in any temperature water. I also was always spilling the powdered detergent. However, I do use the vinegar as fabric softener. I also use Borax, but as my dishwasher detergent. Usually a tablespooon of Borax and a tablespoon of baking soda are all that are needed. I have been using the same box of Borax for years. I had forgotten about the Dawn hint. I know people say shampoo is also good. I need to try these again because I have a hard time getting oily/greasy stains out … just from food spills. Shout, Greased Lightning, Mean Green … none seem to work very well. Usually I put laundry detergent right on these stains, but you have to get it in the laundry right away or there can be discoloration. I used to use only cold water, but it really doesn’t get whites as clean. For really tough stains and multiple stains on clothes that are clothes to not being salvageable, I have used the recipe from Tightwad Gazette where you use super hot water from your tap (about 5 gal), 1 cup dishwasher detergent, and 1 cup Clorox II and soak overnight. It has saved clothes, particularly children’s heavily soiled items. It can fade them a little depending on the color, but in some cases that didn’t matter.
Dear Becky R in NJ,
I read your comment on making liquid laundry soap. How much do you use per load? The powder recipe calls for 2T. per load.
Thanks for responding. Great recipe. I’m definitely going to try this!
Jaymi in Saudi
I’ve heard the reason that the vinegar works so well as a softener is because it eats the soap or something like that…So there is no soap residue!
Here’s what i found on a site
“The acid in vinegar is too mild to harm fabrics, but strong enough to dissolve the alkalies in soaps and detergents”
But the question I have is: are the alkalies what clean your clothes? if you put soap with vinegar, is the vinegar just dissolving the soap? is there a point to adding the soap then?
Curious!
-Kelly
Finally . . . home made detergent- thank you very much !
My “tip ” . . . 2-4 tennis balls in the dryer - really fluffs things up & cuts drying time by 1/3.It is annoying to listen to - maybe, wait until you go out.
Coline. Manitoba, Canada