Dingy clothes with the home made detergent

[Barefoot~Baker]

My clothes are not getting very clean, in fact a lot of them are still dirty when they come out.  I'm using the popular recipe with borax, fels naptha and washing soda.  I add oxy clean to boost it but that's not doing anything.  Any advice?  I really don't want to buy detergent, I honestly need to save the money.

[JamieCatheryn]

With homemade detergent with real soap it it, clothes need stripping every once in a while especially if your water is hard at all. Boiling them or washing in very very hot water and vinegar ought to do it. Also you can try drying them in the sun to sun bleach them, or if you must, use the nasty chlorine bleach stuff on whites just this once. I've also heard of washing in salt water.

[larablue]

Try mixing with a little bit of "real" washing powder. Or switch to a cheap brand of real washing powder and try to dramatically cut the amount you are using. Try not to wash every shirt, but treat small stains, only wash if really needed.

If you can, don´t use your dryer- that will cost you more than the washing powder.