When my husband first brought up the idea of living off-grid I started looking into the aspects of that lifestyle. That’s when I learned that homemade laundry detergent was a thing and super cheap to do.
This was about seven years ago and it wasn’t a lollipop merry-go-round. Something in the detergent we bought was giving my oldest hives and making me super itchy, and it was making our washer smell super odd. So I decided to give it a go.
I have never looked back and have been making DIY laundry detergent since. Of course, my little family has grown since then. I now have a toddler and a poops up her back infant on top of my pre-teen.
The homemade laundry detergent cleans bloodstains, poop stains, urine stains, spit-up stains, and vomit stains without presoak. I know it cleans the bloodstains out of our clothes because I have a closet nose bleeder and then after the birth of my second daughter, my periods changed for the worse. And by worse I mean, there’s a whole bunch of oh shit moments. Even with reusable cloth pads.
Now, this DIY laundry detergent uses borax and Fels Naptha. I haven’t tried it with liquid Castille soap, but I have used the solid version and I end up going back to Fels Naptha.
Where we live our water is super hard, and by hard I mean, you can smell the minerals when you first run the tap. Borax hasn’t destroyed my HE washer and it hasn’t made my washer smell. Due to us having really hard water, borax just helps regulate the Ph levels. Keep in mind, that’s my understanding of borax, I am not by any means a chemist.
Typically a 5-gallon bucket lasts my family of five a little over six months, and that’s with washing clothes two times a week. Sometimes more, with lots of ingredients left over to make it again.
Best Homemade Laundry Detergent
- 5 Gallon Bucket with Lid
- Borax
- Fel Naptha
- Oxi Clean
- Washing Soda
- Scent Booster
- Essential Oils
- In your 5 Gallon Bucket put 2 cups borax (you can adjust this as necessary), 1 1/4 cup washing soda, 1/2 cup Oxi Clean, 1/2 cup scent booster. Mix them together and set aside.
- Grate half the bar of Fels Naptha (or whatever solid washing bar you choose. If you're using body soap like Dove, grate the whole bar). Put in 1 gallon of water and boil until all soap particles are melted. Pour into the 5-gallon bucket and stir until everything is combined.
- Boil 4 gallons of water and pour it into the 5-gallon bucket and stir.
- Add 10-20 drops of your favorite essential oil and stir one more.
- Let it cool and place a lid on it and store it in your laundry room until use.
When washing you only need 1/8 - 1/4 of a cup. I use a baby bottle top cover to scoop the detergent out.
