I have been reading about homemade laundry detergent for awhile now. I started collecting containers for it (white vinegar gallon jugs and random plastic seal-tight gladware type stuff given to us) and hunted down the borax (finally found at Wal-mart on the bottom shelf in back, last box) and washing soda (took months of casual looking and two weekends of serious "treasure hunting"; finally found it at ONE Ace Hardware; up high above eye level). I had already found fels naptha soap for 55 cents per bar at our local discount store by chance at the very beginning of my introduction to homemade laundry detergent. I snapped up four bars not knowing when I would put them to use, but figuring $2.20 plus tax was worth it.
So, yesterday I realized we are running out of laundry detergent and our laundry was piling up. I went online to find the recipe I had seen before and ended up on an even better site (tipnut dot com... I googled "laundry detergent recipe" and it came up first) with TEN recipes listed and general instructions along with specific by-recipe instructions. Perfect for a newbie!
I started with the powdered detergents (3 of them) since I had three containers and wanted to try a few at first versus only making one in quantity. What if it didn't work or we didn't like it? The first two were easy and FAST. I do recommend wearing a dust mask. I coarsely chopped my fels naptha soap with a knife and then tossed the chunks into my mini Braun food processor and turned it into powder.
The third powdered detergent recipe uses completely different ingredients and instructions. I had the ingredients and followed the instructions to the letter, which is highly unusual for me!
It was time-consuming and I didn't care for the final consistency, so I am unlikely to make it again solely based on those two factors. (I'll use this batch up, of course.)
I had three one-gallon white vinegar jugs and an empty All Free & Clear 32 oz bottle (ultra concentrated). I made the first three liquid recipes, too. I adjusted all recipes to fit in a one-gallon jug, except one which I fit into one 1-gal jug and the 32-oz bottle (more concentrated in 32-oz). I also adjusted all water content to end up with a 1/4 cup usage amount. (I love math, so this was part of the fun! If you don't like math, just make the recipe as indicated and make sure you have enough ingredients and containers on hand prior to making it.)
In all, I made just over 3 gallons of liquid detergent and just over 6 cups of powdered detergent for about $5.55 total. I used 2-1/2 bars of fels naptha soap ($1.50), about half a box of washing soda ($2.10 for a little over half), about one-fourth to one-third a box of borax ($0.94 for ~22 oz), Dr. Bronner's castile soap ($0.86 for a 2-oz bottle), 1-1/3 cup of baking soda (44.9 cents per pound, so this amount is pennies), and 1 cup of white vinegar ($0.12). Recipe #10 is the most expensive. Without that two cups (plus a bit more) of powdered detergent, the total would be less than $4.50. That one recipe is over a dollar for only 2.25 cups of detergent that is a pain to make and a pain to use. (Try it, if you are adventurous, or skip it, if you want to save time and money.)
So, today, I had a marathon laundry session. Seven loads of laundry all in one day!!! Not my norm at all. I'm usually a one load a day type girl, but we had all the laundry piling up and I wanted to do a fair test. One load for each recipe.
What worked and what didn't???
They all worked!
All seven recipes worked as far as cleaning goes. Any laundry items that were visibly dirty going into the washer came out clean. DH says his white socks looked cleaner than usual (powder recipe #4 on tipnut). Since our white clothing only filled half a load, I added the very dirty 100% cotton white rug from our kitchen. It also came out cleaner than usual with only the detergent I made. It got brighter white as it dried out in the California sunshine. (Typical drying method for all whites.) Most of our clothing wasn't visibly dirty this time around, though.
However, there were plenty of smelly socks, underwear, and workout clothes for the sniff test. As I have found with ALL laundry detergents (standard commercial, "organic/eco-friendly" commercial, AND homemade), the smells have far more to do with the type of fabric than anything else. Cotton and other natural fibers release odors more readily than manmade fibers. More open weave fabrics release odors more easily than tightly woven fabrics, too. The worst offenders are microfiber fabrics. They are hard to get clean-smelling no matter what detergent you use. Therefore, it was no surprise to me when I sniffed our microfiber "bar mop towels" (used solely for resting clean, wet dishes on these days due to the odor issues in the past) and they only smelled like nothing. Not bad, but not good and not just "clean". It was also no surprise when I smelled DH's microfiber workout shirts and there was a faint odor still. Unless you cover up the odors with scented laundry detergents (like Tide and Surf and so on), you'll find this to be true of ALL detergents. We usually use "free & clear" detergents and there is always a lingering faint odor in microfiber items. I've pretty much given all microfiber items away, except for the most useful ones. All other items came out smelling "clean" or "good" or "MMMmmmm", except the jury is still out on the sheets (recipe #10 on tipnut) since they are still drying outside as they were the last load to get washed. The top sheet was dried in the dryer to be able to compare it and it smells "clean", but it didn't go into the washer smelling offensive.
The "MMMmmmm" smelling laundry is due to me adding essential oils to the detergent when I made it. I played around with quantity and several ratios created that "MMMmmmm" factor.
I was a bit concerned about the effectiveness of homemade detergent for several reasons:
1) We have very hard water here with a HIGH concentration of calcium. It clogs all of our hot water pipes and faucets, etc. Anything that has hot water running through it gets cleaned with full-strength white vinegar, as needed.
2) I've read about dingy whites from folks who use homemade detergents long-term. There are a few differing factors, so this may not be the case with every user.
3) Lastly, just the general, I was raised on commercial products and they must have been created for a reason. Convenience and profit seem to be the main reasons so many commercial products have been created. Most homemade versions I make turn out to be BETTER than the commercial version. (I've been cleaning with baking soda, hot water, cold water, and white vinegar for over a decade.)
Now that I have tried each of the seven detergents to make sure they at least work short-term, I plan to use one powdered detergent until it is gone for all sheets and towels and rags and one liquid detergent until it is gone for all clothing. That'll give me a better feel for the long-term (or at least mid-term) results.
Even though I wash mostly in cold water, for the sake of today's test, I started all loads on hot, added the detergent, waited a minute for the detergent to begin dissolving, switched the water to cold, and then added the laundry and let the washer finish filling up and running on its own. After the first two loads, I noticed a residue in the washer tub. I had forgotten to use white vinegar in the rinse cycle (built-in cup in washer). I don't know if it was powder detergent #4 or liquid detergent #1 that caused the residue (or combo of both). I began using the vinegar in both the rinse cup and bleach cup for all subsequent loads (#3-#7). The residue is still there, but didn't get any worse. I'll clean the machine out before doing any more laundry and pay closer attention to that in the future. The seven different recipes have mostly the same ingredients (except recipe #10, which has different ingredients and procedures from the rest). The key difference in all but #10 is the ratio of ingredients. This is said to make a big difference with the type of water one has.
So, yesterday I realized we are running out of laundry detergent and our laundry was piling up. I went online to find the recipe I had seen before and ended up on an even better site (tipnut dot com... I googled "laundry detergent recipe" and it came up first) with TEN recipes listed and general instructions along with specific by-recipe instructions. Perfect for a newbie!
I started with the powdered detergents (3 of them) since I had three containers and wanted to try a few at first versus only making one in quantity. What if it didn't work or we didn't like it? The first two were easy and FAST. I do recommend wearing a dust mask. I coarsely chopped my fels naptha soap with a knife and then tossed the chunks into my mini Braun food processor and turned it into powder.
The third powdered detergent recipe uses completely different ingredients and instructions. I had the ingredients and followed the instructions to the letter, which is highly unusual for me!
It was time-consuming and I didn't care for the final consistency, so I am unlikely to make it again solely based on those two factors. (I'll use this batch up, of course.)I had three one-gallon white vinegar jugs and an empty All Free & Clear 32 oz bottle (ultra concentrated). I made the first three liquid recipes, too. I adjusted all recipes to fit in a one-gallon jug, except one which I fit into one 1-gal jug and the 32-oz bottle (more concentrated in 32-oz). I also adjusted all water content to end up with a 1/4 cup usage amount. (I love math, so this was part of the fun! If you don't like math, just make the recipe as indicated and make sure you have enough ingredients and containers on hand prior to making it.)
In all, I made just over 3 gallons of liquid detergent and just over 6 cups of powdered detergent for about $5.55 total. I used 2-1/2 bars of fels naptha soap ($1.50), about half a box of washing soda ($2.10 for a little over half), about one-fourth to one-third a box of borax ($0.94 for ~22 oz), Dr. Bronner's castile soap ($0.86 for a 2-oz bottle), 1-1/3 cup of baking soda (44.9 cents per pound, so this amount is pennies), and 1 cup of white vinegar ($0.12). Recipe #10 is the most expensive. Without that two cups (plus a bit more) of powdered detergent, the total would be less than $4.50. That one recipe is over a dollar for only 2.25 cups of detergent that is a pain to make and a pain to use. (Try it, if you are adventurous, or skip it, if you want to save time and money.)
So, today, I had a marathon laundry session. Seven loads of laundry all in one day!!! Not my norm at all. I'm usually a one load a day type girl, but we had all the laundry piling up and I wanted to do a fair test. One load for each recipe.
What worked and what didn't???
They all worked!
All seven recipes worked as far as cleaning goes. Any laundry items that were visibly dirty going into the washer came out clean. DH says his white socks looked cleaner than usual (powder recipe #4 on tipnut). Since our white clothing only filled half a load, I added the very dirty 100% cotton white rug from our kitchen. It also came out cleaner than usual with only the detergent I made. It got brighter white as it dried out in the California sunshine. (Typical drying method for all whites.) Most of our clothing wasn't visibly dirty this time around, though.
However, there were plenty of smelly socks, underwear, and workout clothes for the sniff test. As I have found with ALL laundry detergents (standard commercial, "organic/eco-friendly" commercial, AND homemade), the smells have far more to do with the type of fabric than anything else. Cotton and other natural fibers release odors more readily than manmade fibers. More open weave fabrics release odors more easily than tightly woven fabrics, too. The worst offenders are microfiber fabrics. They are hard to get clean-smelling no matter what detergent you use. Therefore, it was no surprise to me when I sniffed our microfiber "bar mop towels" (used solely for resting clean, wet dishes on these days due to the odor issues in the past) and they only smelled like nothing. Not bad, but not good and not just "clean". It was also no surprise when I smelled DH's microfiber workout shirts and there was a faint odor still. Unless you cover up the odors with scented laundry detergents (like Tide and Surf and so on), you'll find this to be true of ALL detergents. We usually use "free & clear" detergents and there is always a lingering faint odor in microfiber items. I've pretty much given all microfiber items away, except for the most useful ones. All other items came out smelling "clean" or "good" or "MMMmmmm", except the jury is still out on the sheets (recipe #10 on tipnut) since they are still drying outside as they were the last load to get washed. The top sheet was dried in the dryer to be able to compare it and it smells "clean", but it didn't go into the washer smelling offensive.
The "MMMmmmm" smelling laundry is due to me adding essential oils to the detergent when I made it. I played around with quantity and several ratios created that "MMMmmmm" factor.
I was a bit concerned about the effectiveness of homemade detergent for several reasons:
1) We have very hard water here with a HIGH concentration of calcium. It clogs all of our hot water pipes and faucets, etc. Anything that has hot water running through it gets cleaned with full-strength white vinegar, as needed.
2) I've read about dingy whites from folks who use homemade detergents long-term. There are a few differing factors, so this may not be the case with every user.
3) Lastly, just the general, I was raised on commercial products and they must have been created for a reason. Convenience and profit seem to be the main reasons so many commercial products have been created. Most homemade versions I make turn out to be BETTER than the commercial version. (I've been cleaning with baking soda, hot water, cold water, and white vinegar for over a decade.)
Now that I have tried each of the seven detergents to make sure they at least work short-term, I plan to use one powdered detergent until it is gone for all sheets and towels and rags and one liquid detergent until it is gone for all clothing. That'll give me a better feel for the long-term (or at least mid-term) results.
Even though I wash mostly in cold water, for the sake of today's test, I started all loads on hot, added the detergent, waited a minute for the detergent to begin dissolving, switched the water to cold, and then added the laundry and let the washer finish filling up and running on its own. After the first two loads, I noticed a residue in the washer tub. I had forgotten to use white vinegar in the rinse cycle (built-in cup in washer). I don't know if it was powder detergent #4 or liquid detergent #1 that caused the residue (or combo of both). I began using the vinegar in both the rinse cup and bleach cup for all subsequent loads (#3-#7). The residue is still there, but didn't get any worse. I'll clean the machine out before doing any more laundry and pay closer attention to that in the future. The seven different recipes have mostly the same ingredients (except recipe #10, which has different ingredients and procedures from the rest). The key difference in all but #10 is the ratio of ingredients. This is said to make a big difference with the type of water one has.
