Yes, I will admit I make my own laundry soap! I officially made the switch April 5th and have been going strong ever since.
I had been using soap nuts, which seems to work okay for regular clothes, but was not working well for my cloth diapers at all. So then I went to Rockin’ Green for my diapers and Soap Nuts for the clothes. That seemed to do the trick, but it was a bit pricey ($16 for 90 loads) just for a couple of loads a week. I wanted something that could be used for both! So I hunted down the Dugger recipe (I’m sure you’ve heard of the family, 19 kids….) and tried it out. So here’s my take on it!
There are only 3 ingredients: 1 cup Borax, 1 cup Washing Soda (not baking soda…) and 1 and 1/2 bars of soap. They recommended using a specific type of soap that I cannot get here, so I went with Ivory Soap.
Please note that I doubled the receipe in this batch
First grate the soap (much handier if you use a food processor, make sure to REALLY wash well after using), then add the Borax, Washing Soda, and grated soap into the food processor and pulverize until it looks like laundry detergent.
All ingredients mixed together
You can add a scent (although I haven’t yet) to customize your laundry wants. Total time to do this (including running downstairs to get the ingredients) 5min.
Final results in a pretty jar
Now for a breakdown in costs.
Borax =$6.99 for 2Kg
Washing Soda =$6.97 for 3Kg
Ivory Soap = $4.29 for 10 bars
Okay, now if my math is right (using all sorts of conversion such as cups to oz to kg, etc….) it cost roughly $1.96 to make 1 batch of laundry soap.
How long does it last? It all depends on how much you do laundry! I do laundry roughly 11 times a week (6 people and 1 is in cloth diapers) and use between 1 – 2 tbsp per load. The first batch lasted me about a month, which is around 60 loads of laundry. The last time I went to the grocery store I priced out powdered detergent for the same amount of loads which came out to $8.98 (This is the cheapest no name brand I found, it can go up from there) A minimum savings of $7.02! If you want your savings to go even further you make this into a liquid. I haven’t done that yet because I don’t own a big enough bucket. Of course you can always wait for these items to go on sale and get an even better deal.
The results: So far it has been working great with my cloth diapers. No stink issues and I haven’t had to strip them either. When I was using the Rockin’ Green I would have to strip them every other week. As for the regular clothes, it does an ‘okay’ job. I have to admit it doesn’t get the kids stains out as good as I hoped, but then again I”m really bad about pre-treating stains. Although when I do a combo of borax/baking soda/vinegar it seems to do the job…I just have to remember to do it BEFORE I wash the clothes. Oh, I forgot to mention that I have a front loading washing machine…..
Any thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Now go out there and start saving money!!
June 11, 2011 at 8:44 am
I’m really interested in this. I have heard of a lot of ladies making their own detergent. I have a bag of Rockin’ Green and I just won a bag of Charlie’s, but as soon as I’m out, I think I will try the homemade method. I’m all for saving money! And lots of ladies really like their homemade. Thanks for posting!
June 12, 2011 at 10:45 am
We use almost the same recipe as you (only 1 bar of ivory soap, 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda) But I make it a liqued. We have been using this mix for over 3 years now. And I find it does an awesome job with the diapers also. I have never stripped a diaper since before using homemade soap and have never had a stink issue!!! I am also bad at stains
April
June 12, 2011 at 2:17 pm
I’m interested in trying the liquid version. April, could you share the amount of water that you add and how much you use per load? Thanks!
June 14, 2011 at 7:49 am
I don’t really have exact measurments LOL. I put about 3-4 cups water in a pot and add my graded ivory soap. Keep stiring until it melts. Add the borax and washing soda and stir until its all dissolved. While Im waiting on that I have a 10 gallon pail that I fill half way with hot tap water. Pour the soap mixture in and fill the rest of the container with cold water while stirring. Let sit for 24 hours and its done. I have an old tide bottle and a funnel and fill the bottle with soap. The 10 gallon pail will last me almost 2 months, for our family of 6. I use the same measurments that show on the cap of the tide bottle (sometimes a little less if I know the clothes aren’t really dirty)
When I first started making laundry soap I tried the powder version but found that I always had to wash on hot to get the soap to dissolve. Now that I use liquid all of my laundry is washed in cold water other then towels, blankets and 1 cycle of my diaper routine.
~April
(you can delete my last comment I posted under my private account LOL sorry
June 14, 2011 at 7:56 am
Perfect! I do wash on warm so the powder will dissolve, but if I could wash on cold (for regular laundry) that would be great! Regardless, I always wash a short cold water wash with baking soda and a hot long cycle with the laundry soap for the cloth diapers. It seems to do the trick
June 14, 2011 at 8:02 am
My mistake, I use a 5 gallon pail for the soap. The 10 gallon is my diaper pail LOL. Sorry about that, everything else is right though