Homemade Laundry Detergent

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My pits react poorly to just about every deodorant or antiperspirant on the market so I once made homemade antiperspirant which had a nice lemon/mint scent.  As I recall, the ingredients included alum, corn starch, baking soda, coconut oil, and a drop or two of essential oil.  Not satisfied with the consistency, it was too mushy to work in a recycled stick container, I haven't made another batch.  But hey, it worked and it wasn't patchouli scented!  Give me some credit.

Today I'm trying something different; laundry detergent.  There are a number of reasons to make your own laundry detergent which range from economics to environmentalism to skin irritation like the problem with my pits or my son's eczema.  The only reason I can see that someone would not want to do this is lack of time.  It takes about 15 minutes to make this stuff and all the ingredients are available at your local big box mart.

You're going to need to some tools to make this stuff.  I know, I know..  What did you think you'd do for the 15 minutes you'd be making this stuff?  Anyways, the tools follow.

Cheese Grater

The first tool you'll need is a fine cheese grater.  A cheese powderer would be best, but it will increase your labor.  Now, I don't think you need a cheese grater specifically for this purpose, the one in your kitchen should do.  Just make sure you wash it before you use it on food again.  I use something like the picture to the left.  

Coffee Can

The next tool is a vessel to hold the finished product.  I use a 27.5 ounce coffee can, but the recipe only fills this up about half way. Use your imagination. Get fancy. Use an urn! A friend of mine uses a sugar canister.  The thought of a sugar canister holding a white powder intended to wash laundry frightens me.  I'll stick with a coffee can.  I doubt I'll ever be so bleary eyed as to mistake the laundry detergent for coffee, but you never know; I have placed the milk in the pantry instead of the fridge before.  What's that smell?

The third and final tool is a 1 tablespoon sized scoop.  That's right.  1 tablespoon.  Do you need a picture?  1 tablespoon.  This is to scoop your detergent into the washer.  One load of laundry requires 1 tablespoon of homemade detergent.  2 tablespoons if you have children.  Did I mention the scoop needs to be 1 tablespoon in size?  Shocking, I know.

Now for the ingredients.  This can get a little confusing so I'll provide proper chemical names for some of them since the common and brand names can be hard to find.

20 Mule Team brand BORAX

BORAX (sodium tetraborate or disodium tetraborate) is the first ingredient. It's purpose in laundry detergent is to soften the water, pushing calcium, magnesium and other chemicals out of the way so the detergent can do its job. It's usually found in big box mart with the laundry detergent at about 3 Dollars for 4 pounds.  Now, don't confuse this with the chemically related product, boric acid.  Boric acid is CLOSE, but usually used to cause dehydration in insects.  I wouldn't put it in my laundry, but in the highly unlikely scenario that I would have access to boric acid and not borax I may be tempted to experiment.  Borax is cheap.  4 pounds for about 3 Dollars.  It's also an ingredient in my next homemade product: dishwashing detergent.

Soda Ash

Soda ash (sodium carbonate) is needed as well.  Don't confuse this with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), they are not close enough in alkalinity to work well in a detergent.  This is the source of our base to dissolve light organic matter (stains) from the fabric, though it's not so strong as to dissolve the fabric itself.  You would need a LOT more baking soda than soda ash to raise the pH enough for cleansing.  Anyways, you can find this in two places (of which I'm aware) in big box mart; in the laundry section as washing soda and in the swimming pool section as pH UP.  Now, if you choose to use pH UP, READ THE LABEL.  It MUST be sodium carbonate.  If it says caustic potash, caustic soda, lye, sodium hydroxide, or potassium hydroxide, put the bottle down and walk away.  That stuff is drain cleaner and will give you a nice chemical burn before it ever makes it into your washer to dissolve your clothes.  I used pH UP, and it's really affordable.  I purchased 5 pounds about 5 years ago for about $3.50.  I just used the last of it, so I'll be buying a new jug of pH UP soon.

FELS-NAPTHA Laundry Soap

Last but not least, we need soap.  Lye soap, to be exact.  Just say no to glycerine "soap" and Dove.  They aren't really soap.  Look for the word, "SOAP" on the label.  Ivory is good.  FELS-NAPTHA and ZOTE are recommended and cost about 1 Dollar per bar.  Despite the name, FELS-NAPTHA contains no naphtha.  That would be bad.  FELS-NAPTHA and ZOTE can be found in the laundry section of big box mart.  If it's not there, use Ivory or Dial or something like that, so long as it's really SOAP.  Soap acts as a surfactant, allowing water, which has been softened by the BORAX, to displace the organic compounds loosened by the soda ash.  Now doesn't that all make sense?

Okay, now for the fun part.  Mix equal parts BORAX, soda ash, and grated soap into your vessel.  One bar of FELS-NAPTHA grates to 2 cups, so I did 2 cups of each ingredient.  

Wasn't that easy?  It took you less time to make the stuff than it did to read this post!  Don't you wish I'd just said that at the beginning?  What fun would that have been?!

When washing, add 1 tablespoon of the mixture to a load, 2 tablespoons if the load is large or soiled.  If you have hard water, you may want to add another tablespoon of straight borax per load as well.

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Follow up: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent