For the past month or so, we’ve been using homemade laundry detergent from a recipe that I found at the Duggar Family website. We’ve had great results, and the cost is shockingly inexpensive: $2 for 640 loads in our front loader! The fact that it actually works beautifully, is even more incredible!
Laundry Detergent:
We’ve been very happy with Charlie’s Soap, but as we ran low on our 1000 load bucket, I decided to hold off on investing in another until we tried this homemade recipe. The recipe uses only about $2 worth of ingredients ($1 for a bar of Fels Naptha soap, and about 50 cents worth each of Borax and Super Washing Soda). At that price, I felt we had nothing to lose but a little elbow grease, and decided to give it a test run. We’ve been pleasantly surprised with results that are equal, and maybe even superior (gasp!) to my beloved Charlie’s Soap. Our laundry smells fresh and stains come out, but we’ve been especially impressed with the effects on our white items. Some of our older washcloths and towels had been graying, but our homemade soap has brightened them and removed much of the gray. Even Iron Man and a few of the children commented on the whiter whites!
What you need:
- 4 cups hot tap water
- 1 bar Fels-Naptha Soap
- 1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
- 1/2 cup Borax
- 1 five-gallon bucket with lid
- 1 clean, used laundry soap dispenser (one with a nozzle is ideal)
Instructions:
- Grate the bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continuously over medium-low heat until completely melted and dissolved.
- Fill a 5-gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add the melted soap, super washing soda, and borax. Stir until all powders are dissolved. Fill the rest of the bucket with hot tap water. Stir, cover, and let to sit overnight.
- Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser halfway with soap. Fill the rest of the dispenser with water.
Notes:
- Makes a total of 10 gallons
- Use 1/4 cup per load for a front load machine (640 loads)
- Use 5/8 cup per load for a top loader (180 loads)
- If desired, you can add essential oils such as lavendar, rosemary, or tea tree, 10-15 drops per 2 gallons.
- Baking soda will not work as a replacement for Super Washing Soda
- While I usually love Amazon, I don’t recommend buying these key ingredients from them. Their prices were four times the costs I found at my local Walmart and grocery stores.
- A funnel helped dramatically in filling up the soap dispenser. I dipped my largest funnel in the big bucket, holding my finger over the funnel’s opening, to transfer the mixture. If you don’t have a funnel, try a Dollar Store. I bought a pack of three funnels for $1.
Sounds good. i am gonna try this !
I will be trying this and the fabric softener sponges as soon as I can catch Dan before he buys more detergent “on sale!” Thanks!
I have looked all over your website for your old laundry detergent recipe that called for a bar of soap and baking soda. Do you still have that wonderful recipe?
Hi Kendra, this recipe is the only one I’ve used for laundry soap, so maybe it was another blogger who had the baking soda recipe?
The only other laundry soap I’ve blogged is Charlie’s Soap, which is very good, natural and frugal, but not homemade. The Charlie’s Soap blog post is here: http://www.myblessedhome.net/?p=258
I think you’re right. I will try this recipe, instead. I am allergic to most deodorants so I tried your recipe for homemade deodorant and it is the best and works all day! Thank you!
Hi Michelle. I love your blog! Having a large family myself (expecting baby #9 this Aug) I’m always looking for advice and suggestions from those with the same lifestyle. I have been using the dry version of this recipe for a couple of months now (no water, add 1 tbls. per load). I love it’s cleaning power and my only problem has been that I have some children with sensitive skin that can’t seem to tolerate it. Within a week of starting the use of the new detergent my oldest daughter was complaining of itching all over….no rash, just itching. She has eczema so I wasn’t surprised, but within a week she was no longer complaining so I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t actually the detergent or her skin just acclimated to it so to speak. With my second batch I did revise my recipe to using 1 bar ivory (more gentle soap) and 1/2 bar Fels Naptha (didn’t want to give up it’s stain fighting power). However, within the past couple of weeks 2 of my sons have broken out in rashes. It is on the the trunk of their bodies only. I’ve struggled with whether it is the detergent or not since it’s not full body, but did contemplate that the trunk is probably more sensitive than the arms and legs which may account for the limited reaction. I really hate to give up the cleaning power that comes with this homemade detergent so I will be trying to tweak it some to make it more tolerable for sensitive skins (I did read that Borax can be rough on those individuals). In the meantime I wil still be using it on my families jeans and towels…..I think the limited exposure to a towel shouldn’t cause too much of a reaction. Hopefully I can find a solution as I just hate to give up that $0.05 a load that this detergent costs me!
Hi Rhonda, I’m sorry to hear about the allergic reaction that your children have had. I hope you find a way to tweak it to make it work for your family. If you do, please leave a comment to let us know, in case anyone else experiences the same issue. I wonder if a second rinse might help/ Also, could it be anything to do with fabric softener? Some of those can have irritating ingredients as well. God Bless, Michelle
Recommend some other method this is very time consuming method. Infact, I am happy with my Natural Laundry Detergent .
Great post! I look forward to reading more of your writing in the future.
Are you still using the homemade version with Fels Naptha?
I’m trying to find an alternative that really cleans, as Fels Naptha is NOT natural, is petroleum-based and has artificial colors and fragrance.
Yes, I still use this recipe.