Money Saving Homemade Laundry Detergent

There is something about using a homemade _ (fill in the blank) that just makes me feel more accomplished. There is also something that, if the recipe doesn’t come out right, feels frustrating and a little hopeless if you are on you third or fourth try. I finally have a good stack of “nonfood” recipes that I like and I know work for my family. Getting there was not the easiest thing in the world, so I hope I can take some trial and error out of it for you and smooth out the process if you are interested in that kind of thing.

This homemade laundry soap, my secret stain fighters, and I have been through some STUFF: pasta sauces, mildew smell, oil stains, high-efficiency washers, low-efficiency washers, dog “barfies,” and then some. I have lost a lost of good clothes in the trial and error, but now I am completely confident in my ability to save a stained or stinky piece of clothing.

Let’s talk about stains…

OIL

This was the main ruiner of all my clothes for the longest time. I found my life-saving treatment. When you realize you have oil on your clothes, take them off IMMEDIATELY. Then pack the area in baking soda and leave it to sit and pull the oil out of you clothes for a couple hours. Honestly, I am such a spiller, if I know I am going to be cooking somewhere other than my house, I bring an extra shirt so I can perform this action just in case there should be a mishap.

DEODORANT

Small bit of liquid castile soap combined with a few drops of white vinegar in about a 1/2 cup of water. Dab the affected area with a mixture damp sponge or rag. I then rinse the whole thing off and see how I did, then repeat as needed. Run the piece of clothing through a wash cycle when you think you conquered the stain.

MAKEUP, COFFEE, PASTA SAUCE, WINE, CARPET STAINS, ETC. ETC…

I cannot give you any better advice than this: oxy clean, oxy clean, oxy clean. The generic brands I have found work just as well as the name brand. The one thing I will say is the sooner you get to these stains the better. The longer they sit, the better they set. If you can get to them when they are still wet that is the best and you have a better chance of getting them out of your clothes.

MILDEW SMELL

Californians living in humidity turns out to be a learning curve sometimes. Without going into too much incriminating detail, let me just say this trick has become a very handy addition to my super wife skills. Just do a small prewash in the washing machine with the affected clothing with warm water and a couple glugs of white vinegar. When they are done run them through a normal wash cycle afterward, you can add them to a similar load of fabrics.

On to why you are really here, my wonderfully amazing homemade laundry soap. This stuff is so worth the trouble. You will save a ton of money over the long term washing your clothes with this mix. The other plus for me was the truly gentle recipe. My family has the genetic trait hardship of extremely sensitive skin when it comes to chemicals and fragrances. I found this recipe a few years ago and most people used Fels Naptha as their grated bar soap. I loved the way the mix cleaned my clothes but also felt like my skin was perpetually dry and slightly itchy. After a month or so of this I decided to try a bar castile soap. Since Kirk’s is hypoallergenic and made with coconut oil I decided to give that a try. IT WORKED WONDERS. I got the same clean out of my washes and no itchy after effects.

So here is the recipe I am currently using.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large 4 lbs 12 oz box of borax
• 1 large 3 lbs 7 oz box of washing soda
• 1 large 4 lbs box of baking soda
• 1 large 3 lbs tub of oxy clean (name brand or dollar store generic is fine)
• 3 bars of castile soap

DIRECTIONS

Open and grate the 3 bars of castile soap. This can be done in a food processor, but since I don’t have one of those I just use a box grater. It takes a little elbow grease, but I have actually found the castile soap to grate easier than other soaps I have used in the past. Also, it comes out looking like pretty little shavings of white chocolate (but please don’t eat it.)

This goes a lot easier if you mix in batches. I add 1/2 of each box and about 1/2 of the grated pile of soap to my container. Mix completely and then add the rest and repeat.

 What other nonfood recipes have you tried that work?