Homemade Laundry Detergent....

Sulfates, Dioxane, Nonylphenol Ethoxylate? Oh my! Often the ingredients found in store bought detergents and fabric softeners aren’t user or eco-friendly. They may smell nice and clean, but what you’re really smelling are chemicals. Nasty, skin irritating chemicals. If you’re looking for a more natural alternative there are plenty of options. Making your own homemade detergent is easy, fun and super cheap; we’re talking pennies a load. Here’s the recipe of some powder detergent I made this past weekend.

In a two gallon glass jar with a lid I mixed the following: 
4 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
4 cups of Borax
4 cups baking soda
2 finely grated bars of Castile soap (I grated them by hand but some people use a food processor) 
15-20 drops of essential oils (optional). 
Mix the soap and essential oils first, then add the dry ingredients. This makes for easier mixing.

Washing soda or sodium carbonate is like baking soda’s big, bad brother. It’s great for stains, but should be used with more caution than baking soda (don’t use this in your cookies). The only place I’ve been able to find this is at Winco, but know it’s cheap and goes a long way. Don’t use this on wool or silk and no matter how nice you make your soap smell with the help of essential oils (EOSs) don’t stand there and breathe this stuff in. Just because something is natural doesn’t mean you should lick, eat, inhale or rub it all over yourself unless you know for sure it’s okay to do so. Alright, I’ll stop with the mom lecture.

You can find Borax, a.k.a. sodium tetraborate at Save Mart, Target, etc. It softens water and helps the rest of the ingredients do their job better. You’re probably familiar with baking soda, a.k.a. sodium bicarbonate. It cleans, and deodorizes. Some use this instead of washing soda. I just like to use both.

Some of our mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers used soaps like Fels-Naptha or ZOTE for laundry. Many of these soaps are still around if you look hard enough and I frequently have found recipes that included grated versions of these as well. While these are effective, they often contain dyes, perfumes, and other non-eco friendly, petroleum based chemicals. For this recipe I am suggesting Castile soap because it’s biodegradable, vegetable based, and many already include essential oils so you wouldn’t have to buy any. Dr. Bonner is a great brand. So is Kirk’s Original Coco Castile soap (also at Winco). I used Kirk’s for our detergent because it is coconut oil based rather than olive oil based, which means more cleaning power. It also grates into a fine powder that mixes easily into the rest of the ingredients. Some people use two cups of soap for every other two cups of borax, washing soda and/or baking soda they put it. I don’t just because you don’t actually need that much soap to clean clothes and using too much means soap buildup on your clothes.

A word on essential oils; these are not the weak smelling perfume oils you’d buy at Hobby Lobby (no offense Hobby Lobby). These are 100% pure essential oils (EOs) which are very powerful and should only be used in small amounts. I purchased mine from Plant Life Body Care (plantlife.net or search on Amazon.com). They even sell EO blends like “Clean House” or “Holiday”, which both smell heavenly.

This recipe is safe for HE (High Efficiency) washers because it’s low sudsing (we have an HE). You’ll only need 1-2 tablespoons (yes that says tablespoons) per load in a HE washer and about 2-3 tablespoons in a regular washer. Wash in warm water in order for all the detergent ingredients to dissolve.

If you want to wash in cold water or don’t like the recipe above, but want the same non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning action I recommend Charlie’s Soap (www.charliesoap.com, or you can buy a smaller container for less on Amazon.com). It’s also coconut oil based. I use this on my husband’s work shirts which often look like a forklift ran over them before they are washed. It works wonderfully! Many people also use Charlie’s to clean cloth diapers because it’s hypo-allergic.

Instead of regular fabric softener I use white vinegar in the rinse cycle. It’s cheap (about $2 a gallon), works great; helps eliminate odors and no, it doesn’t leave a vinegar smell on your clothes. It also helps clean your washer, gets rid of hard water build up and helps keep whites from graying. I use about the same amount I would of fabric softener. Some people add a couple drops of EOs into the vinegar instead of adding it to the detergent. I might try this if I planned on sun drying the clothes outside ( the cheapest and most eco-friendly way to dry!). If your clothes have to smell like flowers or potpourri there are also alternatives to conventional dryer sheets (so…many…chemicals). I just put about 5 drops of essential oils on a small damp cloth like a washcloth and throw it in the dryer with the wet clothes. The vinegar has already worked its magic as a softener in the washer so if a slight scent is all you want a few drops of EOs will work just fine.

Experiment and see what works for your washer/dryer, your family and you!