Homemade Laundry Detergent
Let me just start by saying, I freakin despise laundry. If it wasn't for the fact that it would cost me money to do so, I would take all of my dirty clothes and throw them in the fire pit and dance around the fire with a margarita in my hand! It's not so much the washing and drying of laundry, it is the folding and putting away the 75 loads of laundry that have accumulated in the family room and migrated into the nursery after I got the energy to fold and put everything away and then changed my mind or had a baby throw up on me and I got distracted!
Anyways, my cousin made me some detergent for my cloth diapers, and it lasted me a little over 9 months. I used it for my regular laundry as well! You can find her recipe here:
http://babykrompholz.com/diy-cloth-diaper-detergent/
After doing some research of my own, I have come up with an awesome and easy way to make homemade laundry detergent! Saving money on laundry detergent makes the task a bit more bearable!
I read online that you could microwave your soap and it would bubble up and then dry out and become this beautiful crumbly mess of laundry soap perfection. I cut my soap into 5 pieces as directed and microwaved it for the reccomended 60 seconds. I probably hit the +30 second button about 8 times. When it finally started to foam up, I set it on the counter and went to Lowe's for a field trip! When I got back home, the soap was cool and I started to crumble it in my bucket that I purchased. Some of the soap broke off into large chunks while some of it crumbled perfectly.
Anyways, my cousin made me some detergent for my cloth diapers, and it lasted me a little over 9 months. I used it for my regular laundry as well! You can find her recipe here:
http://babykrompholz.com/diy-cloth-diaper-detergent/
After doing some research of my own, I have come up with an awesome and easy way to make homemade laundry detergent! Saving money on laundry detergent makes the task a bit more bearable!
I read online that you could microwave your soap and it would bubble up and then dry out and become this beautiful crumbly mess of laundry soap perfection. I cut my soap into 5 pieces as directed and microwaved it for the reccomended 60 seconds. I probably hit the +30 second button about 8 times. When it finally started to foam up, I set it on the counter and went to Lowe's for a field trip! When I got back home, the soap was cool and I started to crumble it in my bucket that I purchased. Some of the soap broke off into large chunks while some of it crumbled perfectly.
Well, this was just messy and annoying! I broke out my food processor and went to town!
I spilled soap everywhere and made a mess. At least it smelled good! I love the scent of fresh laundry!
So in the future, I will probably cut the soap, microwave it for about 3 minutes, let it cool, and just put it straight into the food processor; illiminating the step of trying to crumble it by hand.
And because I like to keep things as simple as possible, I didn't even need to measure my other ingredients! I just dumped the boxes in my bucket, added my soap, put a lid on my bucket, shook it up, rolled it around, and voila: DONE!
So in the future, I will probably cut the soap, microwave it for about 3 minutes, let it cool, and just put it straight into the food processor; illiminating the step of trying to crumble it by hand.
And because I like to keep things as simple as possible, I didn't even need to measure my other ingredients! I just dumped the boxes in my bucket, added my soap, put a lid on my bucket, shook it up, rolled it around, and voila: DONE!
I stored the finished product in the container my cousin Tiff gave me. It's a 26 cup Sterilite locking cereal container. Perfect for this project! There was EXACTLY 26 cups of detergent made with my recipe. It was like fate!
mmmmmmm it smells so yummy! The pink soap makes it look pretty as well!
Okay, okay, finally, here's my recipe:
1-14.1oz bar grated Pink Zote laundry soap 97¢
1-4lb box of Baking Soda $2.35
1-3lb 7oz box of Washing Soda $4.15
1-4 lb 12oz box of Borax $4.15
Literally just throw it all together and mix it up!
A grand total of $11.62 is all I will be spending on laundry detergent for the next hopefully 9-12 months!
To use this detergent, just throw in 1tbsp per load of laundry. When I wash blankets, I like to use 2tbsp of soap, just to be sure I can smell the detergent when I cuddle up at night!
Okay, okay, finally, here's my recipe:
1-14.1oz bar grated Pink Zote laundry soap 97¢
1-4lb box of Baking Soda $2.35
1-3lb 7oz box of Washing Soda $4.15
1-4 lb 12oz box of Borax $4.15
Literally just throw it all together and mix it up!
A grand total of $11.62 is all I will be spending on laundry detergent for the next hopefully 9-12 months!
To use this detergent, just throw in 1tbsp per load of laundry. When I wash blankets, I like to use 2tbsp of soap, just to be sure I can smell the detergent when I cuddle up at night!
I refuse to ever buy laundry detergent ever again! It is such a waste of money!
I hope you enjoy this recipe at home & I hope you can enjoy the perks of saving money & smelling great!
I hope you enjoy this recipe at home & I hope you can enjoy the perks of saving money & smelling great!
UPDATE: so I've been using only 1tbsp of detergent for all of my laundry. I hung a load out to dry last week... Well, of course, it freakin rained... And I mean down poured... Twice... In two days... So I let my clothes stay out there for a few days until it finally dried. I was going to rewash everything, but when I went to pull it off the line, it still smelled FRESH! I totally just said f* it, and folded it! 😝