A lot of people make their own laundry soap because of cost. I made mine because I ran out of laundry soap and it turned out I had all the ingredients on hand.
A basic web search found some notable recipes worth sharing. The base for my own recipe comes from TipNut's 10 Homemade Laundry Soap recipes, but I added Oxyclean to the mix as this blogger suggested. To boost scent, this blogger uses Purex Scent Crystals, but I didn't have any. I do have essential oils, which this blogger suggested, but I'm not crazy about the idea of using my expensive oils for a scent that will mostly wash down the drain anyways. I went with powder because it is both the quickest and easiest to make. Once you have your ingredients, it took maybe five minutes to mix max. Liquid usually requires some cooking, a large pail or pot, and can get moldy over time. However, in the future, I may try this no-grate Liquid Dawn version.
So far, I like it! I do miss the scent, so I may look into the scent crystals, but the cleaning power is definitely comparable. I think if you had especially dirty laundry, you may want to add more baking soda or Oxygen cleaner which all the Mommy bloggers recommend (I mean, really, what's dirtier than diapers?). A lot people online said it is trial and error until you find something you like. I will keep you updated! :-)
Grate 2 cups worth of soap. I used Ivory soap here, but there's lots of different kinds you can use.
Use a food processor (or a hand blender that has a food processor attachment like mine, yippee!) to grind your soap shavings down. You want the particles pretty small to dissolve easily in water.
Optional: I decided to add a little bit of Octagon soap, which is an old school laundry booster. This is not necessary, and if I hadn't included it, the powder would have been completely white.
The Octagon soap was more moist than the Ivory soap and didn't grind down to a powder exactly.
Combine with 2 cups of Washing Soda. Forgot to take a picture of the box, but this is another laundry cleaner you can find in the cleaning aisle.
More optional: Next, I added a 1/2 cup of baking soda, and 1/2 cup of Oxygen cleaner. This was to boost cleaning power! I used the generic Dollar Store knock-off Oxyclean which hopefully I won't regret later ;-)
Lastly, add 2 cups of Borax cleaner. As you can see, Soap + Washing Soda + Borax are the base for my recipe here.
Mix again...and tada! Your own homemade laundry soap! :-) I've been using 1/4-1/2 cup per load. I dissolve the soap in the water basin first before adding clothes.
A basic web search found some notable recipes worth sharing. The base for my own recipe comes from TipNut's 10 Homemade Laundry Soap recipes, but I added Oxyclean to the mix as this blogger suggested. To boost scent, this blogger uses Purex Scent Crystals, but I didn't have any. I do have essential oils, which this blogger suggested, but I'm not crazy about the idea of using my expensive oils for a scent that will mostly wash down the drain anyways. I went with powder because it is both the quickest and easiest to make. Once you have your ingredients, it took maybe five minutes to mix max. Liquid usually requires some cooking, a large pail or pot, and can get moldy over time. However, in the future, I may try this no-grate Liquid Dawn version.
So far, I like it! I do miss the scent, so I may look into the scent crystals, but the cleaning power is definitely comparable. I think if you had especially dirty laundry, you may want to add more baking soda or Oxygen cleaner which all the Mommy bloggers recommend (I mean, really, what's dirtier than diapers?). A lot people online said it is trial and error until you find something you like. I will keep you updated! :-)
Grate 2 cups worth of soap. I used Ivory soap here, but there's lots of different kinds you can use.
Use a food processor (or a hand blender that has a food processor attachment like mine, yippee!) to grind your soap shavings down. You want the particles pretty small to dissolve easily in water.
Optional: I decided to add a little bit of Octagon soap, which is an old school laundry booster. This is not necessary, and if I hadn't included it, the powder would have been completely white.
The Octagon soap was more moist than the Ivory soap and didn't grind down to a powder exactly.
Combine with 2 cups of Washing Soda. Forgot to take a picture of the box, but this is another laundry cleaner you can find in the cleaning aisle.
More optional: Next, I added a 1/2 cup of baking soda, and 1/2 cup of Oxygen cleaner. This was to boost cleaning power! I used the generic Dollar Store knock-off Oxyclean which hopefully I won't regret later ;-)
Lastly, add 2 cups of Borax cleaner. As you can see, Soap + Washing Soda + Borax are the base for my recipe here.
Mix again...and tada! Your own homemade laundry soap! :-) I've been using 1/4-1/2 cup per load. I dissolve the soap in the water basin first before adding clothes.
