Homemade Laundry Detergent -- It's Simple to Make, Sooo Inexpensive, & It Works!
from: Teresa Britton
www.MomsWhoSave.com
I recently took the plunge and tried a frugal experiment I'd been thinking about for awhile. Some of you may want to try this one yourself, and some of you may think this one's going a little too far--my husband did at first!
I'm talking about making my own laundry detergent! It was incredibly easy and very inexpensive. I'm wondering now what took me so long to try it!
I used a simple three-ingredient recipe I found online for a powdered detergent. The liquid ones seemed like too much work, but this recipe is as easy as mixing together dry ingredients in any baking recipe. If you can mix flour and sugar, you can do this!
All of my ingredients cost about the same as just one bottle of good quality liquid detergent, but should last for several months, may-be longer. The recipe I used only requires two tablespoons of detergent per large load, since it's so concentrated. By the way, all the ingredients were available at my local grocery store. (I'll give you the recipe below.)
So far, after many loads of laundry, this detergent's doing a great job for me. It smells like "soap" but the clothes come out of the washer with almost no scent. If you'd like to add scent, you can use dryer sheets or liquid fabric softener. Many people with sensitive skin like this detergent because it is free of artificial dyes and fragrances though. And, I should mention my family's clothes are coming out clean--may-be even a little brighter than before.
If you want to save money--and you can save quite a bit--don't be afraid to trying making your own laundry detergent. It is so easy!
Here's the recipe I'm using:
Mix together:
1 cup Arm & Hammer (or other brand) Washing Soda --not baking soda
1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
2 cups (or approximately 1 bar) very finely grated Fels Naptha laundry bar
Use 2 tablespoons for a large load (adjust for smaller or less soiled loads of clothes)
(Of course, you can always search the internet for other recipes. There are many more, including liquid detergent recipes.)
I found all these products at the end of the laundry area up on the top shelf in the grocery store. I have also heard they are available in Walmart. My parents are giving this a try too, and they found these products at Ace Hardware.
By the way, I've won my husband over, and he even took some of my laundry detergent to work for one of his frugal co-workers to try!
(Article re-posted with permission from www.momswhosave.blogspot.com)
I've been using this recipe for a few months and love it. It doesn't work well for super dirty clothes (like hubby's Army uniforms) but works great on everyday clothes. I make sure to pretreat any stains. Plus you can add a couple drops of essential oil to change the scent.
ReplyDeleteI originally posted this article on my blog a couple of months ago.
ReplyDeleteJust to give you an update, after using this detergent for a while now, I am happy to report that I'm still very pleased with it. It does an exceptional job of cleaning my family's clothes. Compared to the detergent we were using, our clothes are coming out of the wash cleaner and brighter than with our store-bought detergent.
This was really put to the test when I decided to use up a previously purchased bottle of our old detergent. The clothes were not as clean, in my opinion, and I really prefer the very light "soap" smell of my homemade detergent. Our old detergent seemed very "perfumey" in comparison, and the clothes came out of the wash much duller--I think that's just the best word to describe it.
I really encourage everyone to give this a try.
Another tip is to use a food processor to grate your bar of soap--it'll be even easier.