I have been making my laundry detergent for several years now. I prefer to use all natural detergents and have a septic on my property so I am careful about what I put down the drain.
My goto recipe is as follows:
1 (4 lb 12 oz) box of Borax
1 (3 lb 7 oz) box of Super Washing Soda
1 (3 lb) container of OxiClean
2 (5.5 oz) bars of Fels-Naptha soap
1 (4-5 lb) box/bag of Baking Soda
I start by taking the Fels-Naptha and chopping it up into chunks. I put some of the Fels-Naptha and some of each of the other ingredients into the food processor and process it until completely mixed and the soap chunks are ground up. I dump that into a large bowl and repeat with the remaining ingredients. I mix all the ingredients together and then run it all through the processor again to make sure the ingredients are totally mixed together and there are no soap chunks left.
Running all of these powdery ingredients through the food processor creates a dusty cloud. I put a towel over the processor which keeps the dust controlled a bit. It’s easy to wipe off the counters when I’m done – and they get cleaned at the same time – lol.
If you don’t have a food processor, you can always take a fine grater and grate the Fels-Naptha and then blend it up in a blender until powdery. Then mix all the ingredients together. If you want to add a little fragrance to your detergent, you can mix in about 20 drops of essential oil. A citrus scent or lavender would be really nice. Melaleuca could also be added as a disinfectant.
This makes quite a bit of detergent – about 14 pounds or 33 cups. I use a scoop that I had saved from a previous box of detergent which holds about 1 1/2 tablespoons and I use 1 scoop per load.
So here’s the math:
- Fels-Naptha x2 ………………………. 1.94
- Borax ……………………………………… 4.47
- Washing Soda ………………………… 4.12
- Baking Soda …………………………… 2.48
- OxiClean ………………………………… 9.76
- Total $22.77
One batch costs $22.77 (before sales tax) purchased from Walmart. One batch makes enough for 352 loads (33 cups x 16 tablespoons per cup divided by 1.5 tablespoons per load = 352). Which means that $22.77 divided by 352 loads equals less than 7 cents per load. What a deal!
A 102 load box of Tide powder costs about $20 from Walmart which is about 20 cents per load. A 2 pack 70 load Seventh Generation powdered detergent from Target cost about $31 which is about 22 cents per load. So quite a bit of savings and you get awesome detergent which cleans like a charm. I store mine in a lidded container.
