Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent

     I'm sharing with you my absolute favorite thing in my entire household (aside from my dog and husband). I never thought I would see the day where I got SO excited about laundry soap. But, low and behold the day has come and I still get excited every time I make it, and share the recipe with others. So many people don't realize how many chemicals are in everyday products we use and love, and don't bother to research those kinds of things. As time has passed, my husband and I have become more and more aware of these horrible things in products we use and done our best to eliminate them.

     Unfortunately, there is also a lot of misleading advertising out there, as we all know. A lot of the chemicals that are actually in these detergents, aren't even listed on the container... Not cool, I know. So, I looked around online and I compiled a good list of the main ingredients you want to avoid-that are actually usually listed on the detergents ingredients list. The list is below:

     Kinda turns your stomach, huh? Mine too. Hence why I made the switch over to homemade. At least I know what's going into it. Now, I've had people tell me a million times that I'm crazy for trying to eliminate all kinds of toxins from my life because the world we're living in already has so many. That's fine, call me crazy but if I'm able to eliminate any unnecessary toxins from our life-I will. Plain and simple. Why should I expose myself if I don't have to?

     Now, getting into the actual recipe. It seems tedious at first, but the more often you do it, the easier it gets, and it's not like you have to do it very often because the batches yield pretty large amounts. 

Supplies:

-Blender or Food Processor

-Hand grater

-Medium Containers (one for permanent storage, another just for the process of making the soap)

-1 C Measuring Cup 

-1 Tablespoon Measuring Spoon, for permanent use inside the container you're storing your soap in

Ingredients:

-1 Box 20 Mule Team Borax (1 cup per bar of soap/batch)

-1 Box Arm + Hammer Washing Soda (1 cup per bar of soap/batch)
-Dr. Bronners Castille Bar Soap (1 bar per 1 cup of Borax/Washing Soda)
  ^You can use Fels-Naptha, Ivory or Zote, but I prefer Dr. Bronners because it is natural, GMO free and fair trade. Obviously at $2.99/bar, it is a little more pricey than Fels-Naptha ($0.99/bar) but to me, the benefits are obvious and the cost/load is still cheaper than Tide, Seventh Generation, etc.,

Instructions:
Step 1- Determine how large of a batch you want to make. For this one, I used 2 cups of Borax, 2 cups of Washing Soda and 2 bars of Dr. Bronners soap, which yielded about 104 tablespoons of detergent (Yes-I counted out tablespoons for you...) Take one of the containers, and pour in the 2 cups each of Borax/Washing Soda and stir to mix.

Step 2- My least favorite! Take the bars of soap, un-wrap them and start grating!!!! Yes, it sucks and yes you'll probably feel a burn but it'll be over sooner than you think! Grate both bars completely down, and after they are grated, mix that into the container with the Borax/Washing Soda mixture.


Step 3- Blender time! This step isn't necessary to a lot of people, but for me it is. I've seen people just simply stop making it here, and leave the grated pieces of soap in the mixture, but I prefer to blend it all into a fine powder, because that way I don't have to worry about making sure it dissolves completely in the washer. It's just less trouble in the end, this way. Take the 1 C measuring cup, and scoop 1 to 1.5 c of the detergent mixture into the blender. Blend until it's a fine powder. This make take 20-30 seconds. make sure you stop blending and carefully stir it around every so often. It may cake up at the bottom of the blender, but just take a fork and tap it out. No harm done! Keep going 1-1.5 C at a time, until it's all been blended into a fine powder. As you get each cup to that fine powder, just go ahead and dump it into the container you're planning on using for storage. (If you see any chunks when you pour the powder into the final container, just tap it with a fork or spoon and the chunks will fall right apart)

A big container like this, allows me to make sure everything
is finely grated as much as it can be, and allows me to
get rid of any chunks in the powder stuck
together from the blender. 

Step 4- You can blend everything through one more time, just to be sure-if you choose. Since everything is finely blended at this point, I usually put somewhere between 2-2.5 cups of mixture at a time in the blender. I just like to make sure it's as fine as it can be.

My jar, with an adorable chalkboard sticker that I wrote
the text on. Love the idea that I can wipe it off, and
change it up whenever I want! :) 

Step 5- You're done! See, it was that simple. Now, just put the powder into a container with a lid and your tablespoon, and enjoy your natural, nasty chemical-free, soap! I made jars, which I will be posting the DIY instructions for soon. I think the glass jar looks so nice and clean vs the plastic container I used to use. Plus, it was fun to make the jar and design it :)
Note: You will notice the lack of suds when you use this for the first time. Don't worry, it's still working just as well as any other detergent (I personally think it works better!!) So, don't freak out about not seeing a million bubbles, just let it work its magic. :)

How Much Do I Use?
Per load, I typically use 1-1.5 tablespoons. If the load is extra soiled or extra large, I use 2-2.5 tablespoons. Just depends. Using anymore than that, I see as being unnecessary unless you're washing some REALLY dirty clothes, which in that case I still wouldn't suggest using more than 3 tablespoons. It'll work just fine!

You'll notice there won't be much of a scent to the clothes after washing because there aren't any artificial perfumes/fragrances in the detergent. To combat that, I found that I absolutely LOVE Mrs Meyers dryer sheets, which can be found in a variety of scents at Target. They are eco-friendly, biodegradable and they use a vegetable-derived softener in these sheets. They come in a variety of great fresh scents such as lavender, basil, geranium and my favorite-lemon verbena.

Do you have any laundry tricks/secrets that you love? Share them in the comments!

Happy Washing!
-Taylor

P.S. I broke down the numbers, and the homemade detergent costs between $0.08 and $0.11 per load, depending on how much powder you use each load. $0.08 is if you used all 104 scoops of the double batch, as single scoop loads. $0.11 is if you use larger scoops per load. These numbers compare to Tide for example, which in a container including detergent for 110 loads, breaks down to costing $0.15/load. Seventh Generation detergent, breaks down to costing about $0.31/load.

     If you use another soap instead of Dr. Bronners, the cost per load drops even more, as the bars of soap are up to $2-2.50 cheaper than the Dr. Bronners is. But, as I stated earlier, I use Dr. Bronners for several reasons, another being the amazing variety of natural scents. My favorites are the peppermint, lavender and rose.