Yesterday I was taken over by a need to try something new, so I decided to try making laundry soap. I had purchased the ingredients a few weeks back and was planning to make it when my tub of “environmentally friendly” detergent from Costco ran out, but it appears that this tub of mediocre washing goo has broken the laws of physics and is somehow bottomless. I am tired of waiting to run out of so-so stuff to try something more interesting! (I promise I’ll use the rest of the “environmentally friendly” goo for towels, at least, because I don’t want to be wasteful).
Grating the Fels Naptha took a while, but it was easier once I switched from the microplane grater to the box grater.
I have seen a few recipes for liquid detergents that look gloopy and icky, but then I found a recipe for a dry version at Debt Free Adventure. I modified this a bit to make use of the Fels Naptha bars I had already bought rather than using Ivory bars. I tested this recipe on three loads, two of which were darks and one lights (which included a white T-shirt smeared with guacamole). The clothing came out really clean, except for the guac which needed a second run, though to be fair that was a lot of green fatty stuff on white which would be hard for any detergent. Everything smelled clean but not perfumed, which is nice.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
- 1 bar Fels Naptha
- 1 cup Borax
- 1 cup Washing Soda
- Grate the Fels Naptha bar. I tired using a microplane grater, which took forever and made little curls, and the fine side of my box grater, which was faster and produced fine soap powder.
- Stir together borax, washing soda, and grated soap until well combined.
- Dump it all into a container for storage and seal. Use 1-2 Tbs. per load of laundry, depending on the size of your machine.
I am on a personal and professional quest to find a happier, healthier, greener and more cost effective way to live life in the suburbs. 
The Suburban Homestead 
6 comments
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August 28, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Matt Jabs
Way to go! My wife & I actually just made a new batch using Fels Naptha as well… it works great.
August 28, 2009 at 3:13 pm
allisoncoffin
Hey Matt, thanks for sharing your recipe. I’ve seen many, but yours was the one that finally got me to give it a try. I have a question about your dishwasher detergent recipe: does it cause dark spots stainless steel flatware?
August 28, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Matt Jabs
you’re welcome! Not any spots at all… not for us anyway. I suppose all water & dishwashers are different, but I don’t see this happening at all.
August 29, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Chris
This is very cool. Thanks. I have just been introduced to a ‘High Efficiency’ washing machine, so I have been wondering about the soap ‘$pin’ {pun intended} on the needed specialty, manufactured laundry detergents.
Thanks, also for the link to ‘Debt Free Adventure.’ Fascinating site.
I really, really, really love all this DIY stuff. It really is an interesting time coming to realize how much we as a consumer society have been convinced that we do not know how to make some of our most basic essentials for life. Kinda like ‘FREE’ fertilizer from compost. I essentially got fired from a nursery because I was encouraging people that were struggling with their budgets to learn how to save money making compost instead of buying ‘Miracle’ fertilizers. The nursery made most of their money from selling fertilizers, so I was not a team player…
Maybe, this whole economic recession thing will help make DIY a cool reality, and not a looked down upon ‘poverty’ mentality. Cause when I think about it, so much of our “extreme materialistic consumer” mind set is about showing off what we can buy, instead of what we can make and share.
Team DIY. And, yes we use soap every day. This will be fun… though, the economic transition is going to be interesting.
Could you just imagine if they taught ‘DIY’ classes in high school? Wait, never mind, it is already happening on the Internet, and people like you are the new and exciting, reality based teachers.
Now, to just conjure up a fun way for this to be fairly compensated for…
August 29, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Chris
Just, wondering thinking about our fear of making our DIY stuff, and wonder if it has anything to do with reading the massively, complicated (got to be a chemical engineer, rocket scientist to understand), extensive ‘ingredient’ lists on products, that make us feel incapable of reproducing basic things…? Most ingredient chemical lists are hugely intimidating to say the least….
Nah, large multi-national conglomerates would never dream of intimidating consumers. Forget I even mentioned that.
Just think if High School chemical professors taught us how to understand essential real life products…
Just wondering!
August 31, 2009 at 2:40 pm
allisoncoffin
I think our fear of making our own stuff is rooted in the post-WWII lifestyle and economy changes. About that time a lot of the convenience items started to appear on the scene, many of them being a modification of chemicals that had been manufactured for warfare. We got used to using so many products that made life seem easier, even though many of the products were unnecessary, dangerous, and/or unsustainable to produce.
By the time my generation came along, few of us were taught DIY skills by their two working parents.
My personal enlightenment (with regard to all the stuff I thought I needed to live) came from contemplating my can openers. I had bought 3 electrical ones in 3 years, and the darn things kept breaking. Yet I kept buying them, until it finally got through my thick skull that maybe opening a can did not require plugging something in. I would “get by” for a few days with a broken can opener by using a cheap-o camping can opener, and that worked (though not terribly well). When my last plug-in can opener pooped out 8 years ago, I did a little research and bought a Kuhn Rikon Safety Lid Lifter. I still use this one today, which has saved me money, energy, and stress.
And that got me thinking about what other things I bought out of habit or because of marketing, but that I did not actually need or for which I could make better alternatives.
Turns out the list is long, and homemade is almost always better. The trick is to overcome the fear of making a mistake…and really the worst mistakes I’ve made so far just resulted in wasting supplies and a little embarrassment. It’s better to learn from mistakes, though, than to never learn at all.