How to Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

I want to preface this by saying that this is not my recipe.  I found it on Diaperswappers and it has been tried and tested by over 70 pages of mommies!  Most of them report great success and are amazed at how much greener and thriftier this can be.

PLEASE NOTE:  This recipe is copyrighted by the author and only for personal use.  You cannot sell this recipe or its product.  If you would like to use this as a fundraiser, you can contact her at (COMING SOON).

I'm amazed at how easy this was to do! It took almost no time at all!

Ingredients:

1 bar castile soap

1 cup borax

1 cup washing soda

optional:  Oxyclean Free

Step 1:  Collect your ingredients.
You are going to need 3-4 things:  borax, washing soda, castile soap and possibly a bit of Oxyclean Free.

I used Kirk's castile soap although many people tried Dr. Bronners as well.  Dr. Bronners has an amazing array of scents that will scent your laundry detergent.  However, it is approx. $4 per bar, where Kirk's is approx $1.  I found all the ingredients in Wegman's.  Borax and washing soda were in the laundry aisle.  Kirk's was in the natural section with the soaps.

Step 2:  Soap needs to be made into a "powder".
Take your castile soap and cut it into slices.  It cuts easily - and as you slice it the soap falls into smaller pieces.

Take the slices of soap and put them in your food processor.  Run the food processor until all the soap is in tiny little balls - almost like a powder.

Step 3:  Add other ingredients.
I mixed all my ingredients together in an old Oxyclean bucket.  Just as an afterthought I added 1 scoop of Oxyclean Free to the mix.  2 batches fit in a bucket.

To do a load of laundry, add 1-2 tbsp to a small load or 3-4 tbsp to a large load.  Yes - that is really all you need.  You may find yourself adjusting those amounts based on your invididual washer.  Don't be surprised if your first few loads foam up quite a bit and/or have dirty-looking water.  This will be the leftover chemicals/sudsers from your old detergent.  It will go away after a few loads.  

Here is the thread from Diaperswappers if you want to do some more reading on this before you try it.  I will try the detergent myself tomorrow when I do laundry.  I still have some Charlie's left that I am using on my diapers, but when that runs out I plan on making the diaper laundry detergent too.

If you try this, let me know how it works for you!