Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've started making my own laundry detergent since I've been using cloth diapers for Ezekiel. I had read that its better for the wear and tear on the diapers. Plus its much cheaper! And as it turns out, its really easy to make. You can buy everything you need at Rural King. And if they don't have a Rural King where you live, try Wal-Mart. Only I'm not sure if Wal-Mart has Fels-Naptha soap.

1 bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap 1 Cup Borax laundry powder
1 Cup Arm & Hammer powder laundry soda
1 Cup OxyClean powder
1/4 ounce scented oil (optional)
Clean 5 gallon bucket with lid
Several empty bottles for storage (plastic milk cartons or old laundry soap bottles work great)
A funnel

Heat a soup pot full of water to almost boiling. Meanwhile grate the bar of soap. Remove pot from heat, add grated soap, whisk until completely dissolved. Whisk in 1 cup each of dry ingredients. (The OxyClean may be omitted, but detergent will have better results if you use it.)

Pour mixture into clean 5 gallon bucket. Fill bucket the rest of the way up (stop about 2 inches from the top) with hot water; stirring well. Whisk in scented oil if desired.
(FYI, tea tree oil and grapefruit oil have disinfectant qualities and smell great. However, this step is not necessary becuase the bar-soap already has a fresh scent.)

Let the bucket sit overnight (or until you get back to it). The next day the mixture will have turned into goo. Give it a really vigorious stir. Then funnel into storage containers.

Use 1 cup per load
*Shake very well before each use.

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Aproximate Cost:
76 oz. Borax (12 batches) = $5
55 oz. Arm & Hammer (9 batches) = $3
56 oz. OxyClean (9 batches) = $9
9 bars Fels-Naptha (9 batches) = $1.29 each; $11.61 for all

total spent: $28.61 (or $3.18 per batch)
for 45 gallons of detergent (80 loads per 5 gallon batch)
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Compare to Tide 100 oz. (60 loads)= $11.99

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