The following recipes are recipes that you can easily make at home in order to make eco-friendly laundry detergents.
Eco-Friendly Powdered Laundry Detergent
Ingredients:
1 bar of soap (not antibacterial)
1/2 cup of borax
1/2 cup of baking soda
Grater
Resealable container
Directions:
1. Grate bar of soap into container.
2. Pour in borax and baking soda.
3. Mix well.
4. Use 1 tbsp. for small or lightly soiled loads and 2 tbsp. for large or heavily soiled loads.
This recipe is by “GreenKnitter”. You can view this recipe in their article online.
Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergent
Ingredients:
5 ounces of pure soap (can be deodorant soap)- preferably cruelty-free soap. I use pure glycerin soap. If you can find Zote Soap, that’s great.
Water (faucet is fine)
grater
large pot (3-4 quart size)
Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate) – a.k.a Washing Soda – can be found at grocery, photography, and pool supply stores.
Directions:
1. Grate the 5 ounces of soap into the pot and just cover with water.
2. Heat until soap is dissolved. Heat on low to medium heat, stirring continually.
3. After heating and dissolving, fill pot the rest of the way with more water. Stir in ONE cup full of soda ash/washing soda.
4. Stir mixture until soda ash is dissolved. I usually heat mine on low and stir to dissolve the soda ash completely. Let mixture cool.
5. Funnel into a large recycled container, such as a recycled juice bottle, a cola bottle, or anything else you can find. Use 1/4 cup per full load of laundry.
This recipe is by “themissiah”. This recipe can be viewed in their article online.
Not only does this laundry soap not contain harmful chemicals, it is pennies to make compared with store bought. I’m definitely trying this out.
sounds very easy I’ll have to try it myself, I’m getting more conscious of the chemicals I use for cleaning.
[...] need a plethora of new cleansing materials for your home. Start out eco-friendly with options like homemade detergents or ready-made “Green Clean [...]
I also like the fact that I can choose a soap that would suit my sensitive skin.
Looks easy to do, thanks for the tips, will definitely have a go at doing this.
i think that chiken and how it tastes is like detergents how they are made and what is put on it and in it makes it eather better or worse
erm.. thank you for that piece of useful advice wise man.. do you mean we must not put chicken flavour in our detergents?
Wow, I didn’t know I could make my own detergent! How does it work out cost-wise compared to buying store detergent? Also, you could probably add herbal products to these recipes if you wanted a scent.
Here is a tip.. Don’t use moisturizing soap.. while this soap is excellent for your skin, the excess oils are not good for your clothes or your washing machine.
Thanks for the tip, ZammaJannan!
What I’m wondering is: can you put a few drops of essential oils (not so much as to make the soap oily) so you can have your own custom- aroma clothes soap? That would be cool!
Responses to heretoday
I wouldn’t see why not since you can do that with many other things, and it isn’t as though you are applying the oil directly to the clothes all by its self.
Definitely! They work great, and you can ”play” with the scent(s) you like and come up with your own unique aromas for your soap and your clothes!
Where in the world (not online) would you obtain borax
Responses to Stephanie
Wal-Mart carries it. It can be found by the laundry detergents. I specifically mention Wal-Mart because almost everyone has one near where they live. I can’t tell you where to look locally where you live, so you will have to look around.
20 Mule Team Borax is in just about every grocery store or discount store.
What about High Efficiency machines? We have to buy specific detergent for our machine because it uses so little water. We only use about 1-2 tbsp of soap but it is HE soap. Any ideas?
Responses to Amy Daniels
That’s a tough one Amy. A relative of mine has the same problem as you. If I think of anything I will let you know, but at the moment I am unsure. With any luck one of our readers will see your question and have an idea for you. If you can think of anything as well please post a comment with whatever solution you may have come across. Have a great day!
I have a front loader (HE) and have been using homemade detergent for a while. I use 1-2 Tbsp Washing soda and a small dash of Dr Bronners Castile soap. You can find that online but I buy it at my local health food store. Don’t let the price of the bottle scare you. You really only need a small dash.
I will have to try that…I love Bronner’s soap and I use it to bathe. Never thought of using it to wash clothes.
Catherine,
Can you send me the complete receipe for making homemade laundry detergent for front load (HE) washing machines. I’ve never made homemade laundry detergent before and I’m excited to start. Thanks!
Thank You, your comment is waiting to be approved.
I am wondering if Catherine would be able send me the complete list of ingredients for homemade laundry detergent for a front load washing machine. I asked for this a week ago and haven’t received a reply. Is there a problem? Would appreciate a reply. Thank you very much.
Responses to Maria
Instead of having to make your own detergent, just buy vinegar and baking soda. I add the vinegar to the detergent compartment and 1/4 cup baking soda to the clothes, start the machine. I make my own dryer sheets (Take your fave liquid softener, saturate rags, squeeze out rags, spread out and allow to dry. Re-usable for a few loads.) No chems in waste wash water! But I dry my clothes outside as often as possible to keep the electricity costs down.
could someone puh-leese tell me how to make soap detergents that has ingredients found anywhere.its for my science project and i need it urgently…please help
Have any of you tried soap nuts? I highly recommend them.
I do not make4 my own detergent, I have used Shaklees natural detergent for years. They are a very green company and I use a lot of their products.
I do like teh ideas mentioned above. However sometimes time can be a deciding factor. In our busy household we use Ecover cleaning products. They are great as Ecover also sell large refill boxes. Keep packaging waste down to a miniumum.
Nice idea. The following steps are so easy
These recipes are low-sudsing, and work in an HE front-loading washer great. I’ve been using a similar recipe for over a year, and have had great results with clean clothes (including lots of cloth diapers) and no issues with the machine from the detergent. White vinegar is a great fabric softener, too.
Do you have any ready made option readily available
I too also use soapnuts and there are wonderful! I am really intrested in trying out this recipe for laundry soap.
Thank you
Hi
I made the liquid laundry detergent and it’s great. The clothes look cleaner and brighter, however the only complaint from my family was that the clothes don’t have a clean scent. I added lavender essential oil (approx. 1 1/2 tablespoons) and the clothes still didn’t have that clean fresh scent. Does anyone have any suggestions about fragrance and the necessary quantity?
Thanks
p.s. I followed the receipe to the tee.
I have used this for over a year. The clothes get heavier and heavier. The whites are dingy. All the dirt collects and the ends of the clothes leaving stains. The clothes never smell clean. Often they smell musty. I keep having hope with each batch that i did something wrong and THIS time it will work. It doesn’t. Ever.
Responses to Elizabeth
Do you have hard water? I wonder if that would make a difference.
Did you make the liquid or powder version?
It sounds like your soap is super concentated, did you add enough water? If you made the liquid version, make sure that you followed the receipe to the tee and don’t use too much soap in one load. I recently tried to add more detergent thinking that my clothes would get more cleaning action, but instead the grated soap bits did not dissolve as well. Also, if you don’t add fragrance to the batch, your clothes won’t smell clean. I dealt with this issue and started to add lavender essential oil. The clothes now smell fresh, but they don’t smell ”Tide” clean. Also, I found that when shredding the bar of soap, I used a grater that shreds the soap very fine and this helped alot in the cooking process as well as considerably reducing any traces of soap on my clothes. I hope this helps, because the soap receipe is quite good.
I’ve used home-made laundry detergent for years. It helps if you switch up the different recipes every few months – use a liquid detergent, then a dry detergent, etc. – keeps your clothes from getting soap build up. Also, you can just use baking soda alone for loads that aren’t heavily soiled. Works great!!