Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe

Are you looking to save money by making your own homemade laundry detergent recipe? Look no further, this one is tried and true!

I love saving money by DIY-ing. So, I was just catching up on my blog reading one day when my friend Jayme posted her DIY Laundry Detergent. Awesome! It really does take only ten minutes – and the hardest part is grating the soap. On top of that, it saves me about $20 bucks a month!! Goodbye Tide, hellow Fels Naptha!

All the credit goes to my friend Jayme. Click here for the link to her posting.

Specific washer comments: As Jayme says in her blog, you need to read your washer manual carefully with regard to what you can use. She says: “This recipe was actually made for HE machines. Ours is HE. The reason you have to be careful with HE machines is because they use less water, so you need something with low suds…and this detergent is very low suds.”

Supplies for Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe

Things you probably already have at home:

• bowl
• medium size cheese grater
• 1-cup measuring cup
• 1/3 measuring cup you can part with as a scooper
• storage container for the detergent

At the grocery store, you’ll want to get:

• 1 bar of Fels Naptha bar soap: $0.97
• box of borax: $3.38
• box of washing soda: $3.24

Directions on Making Home Made Laundry Detergent

1. Grate the bar of Fels Naptha bar soap using the grater and bowl. This is the hardest part of the recipe. It feels like forever that you are doing it, when in actuality, it takes like ten minutes.

2. Measure 1 cup of washing soda and 1 cup of Borax into the bowl.

3. Mix up the stuff in the bowl all together and make sure you mix it well. Break up any huge chunks.

4. Finally, pour the whole thing into your storage container – and throw in your 1/3 measuring cup to use as a scooper 🙂 You are done!

What you see in the image below is how much I got – and it has lasted me about 30 loads of laundry. Not bad for an $8.00 initial investment!

What’s awesome about this recipe is when I run out, all I need to do is run out to the grocery store and grab a $0.97 bar of soap because I would still have the Borax and washing soda remaining!

As far as how my clothes feel and smell – there’s not really any type of scent that I could sense. Really, the smell and softness comes from the dryer sheets that I use.

When the hubs gets his clothes all greasy from working on cars, I may use 2 scoops – and it does the job.

Here’s an updated post on using this homemade laundry detergent and how amazing it’s been for the sensitive skin in our family!