Way to Save Money-How to Make Laundry Detergent
Posted on 09. May, 2009 by Holly in Ways to Save Money
4 Simple Steps to Making Your Own Laundry Detergent
Simple Tutorial to Making Laundry Detergent from Home, for Pennies
Ingredients:
- 1 Box of Washing Soda ($2.23)
- 1 Box of Borax (found in the laundry detergent aisle, approx. $1.99)
- 1 Bar of Soap
- Large Bucket
- Mixing Spoon
- Cheese Grater
- Old containers, water jugs, plastic bottles to store the detergent in
Making laundry detergent at home, is an excellent way to save money. According to the US Department of Energy, the average American does 148 loads of laundry per year. Some families wash clothes daily, which would equal a few hundred loads of laundry per year. Laundry detergent is ridiculously expensive, and it’s time you save some money = each load will cost you mere pennies!
I first made my own laundry detergent several months ago, after reading several tutorials online – my favorite which was from the Simple Dollar website. So, thank you Trent, for your article as it has saved me a lot of money. My son and I enjoyed making our own laundry detergent so much, that I wanted to create a little graphic tutorial for you on making laundry detergent from home. We altered the recipe a little bit to make. It was a fun project to do with my four-year-old son, took less than 20 minutes, and saved me hundreds of dollars (per year).
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Tutorial: 4 Steps to Making Laundry Detergent
Step 1: First, take your bar of soap (any kind of bar soap will work) and your cheese grater and grate that bar of soap down just like you would a block of cheese. This is the only hard part of making your own laundry detergent, but it is worth the work! Grate it down until you have a bowl full of grated soap.
Step 2: In a large pan on your stove, put four cups of water and bring it to a boil. Take your grated soap bar pieces and dump them into the water, stirring constantly. It will take a few minutes, but continue to stir until the soap shavings dissolve fully. The water will become cloudy and thicken up. When all pieces are dissolved, you’re ready for the next step.
Step 3: Leave the pan on the stove for a moment, and take out your large bucket. Put approximately 3 gallons of warm water into the bucket. Then add 1 Cup of Washing Soda, and 1/2 Cup of Borax. Stir it all until it dissolves.
Step 4: Take the pan off of the stove, and pour it directly into the bucket with the mixture of washing soda and borax. Continue to stir until everything is dissolved fully. And, you’re done! It is recommended that you let the stuff settle overnight, before putting it all into containers for future useage.
The Final Result: My son and I (within 20 minutes) made a large batch of laundry detergent. We filled up all the old laundry detergent containers as well as the other bottles with detergent, and had detergent to spare. I ran out of bottles so I kept it in the bucket and used that first, before getting to the bottles. This stuff lasts a very long time, and costs just pennies for each load. Making laundry detergent at home is simple, fun and a great way to save a lot of money.






Jenna
10. May, 2009
This is very interesting Holly. I dont think I am as brave as you to take on this project, but I give you credit for doing it.
If I tried to do this, I think it would have ended up all over the floor, and that is with a background in chemistry. Good post!
Holly
10. May, 2009
Hey Jenna thanks for posting. You are so funny – it is really easy to make it! Josh did most the work – so I know you could do it!
I had fun making this with him – and the stuff lasts a really long time. It’s fun and creative – if you ever try it let me know how it works for you!
nichemkr
19. May, 2009
I was just thinking about doing something like this a couple of weeks ago. That and maybe trying to make my own toothpaste. Is Washing Soda the same thing as Baking Soda? I assume it is, but don’t want to blow up the kitchen.
-Victor
Holly
26. May, 2009
Hi Nichemkr,
Washing Soda isn’t the same as Baking Soda and some people are really serious about this and say you should not substitute one for the other. But I have used Baking Soda (which I purchased in the laundry section at the store, near the Borax) and it worked extremely well for me.
melissa
27. Nov, 2009
thats great holly!! i have a hug family and have been looking for a way to save a few $. cuz i can go through like 2 things of soap a wk , so i started buying powder but that still a lil more pricey then i would like so i’ll give this a try thanks let you know how it works out k