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Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

If you ask me, homemade liquid laundry detergent is the way to go. Just knowing that when I buy it from a store I’m mostly paying for water makes me cringe.

This homemade soap works wonderfully cleaning my laundry, with hot or cold water. I’ve used it with city water, hard well water, regular upright washers or front loading high efficiency washers and it’s done great with all. Not only does it work great, it’s easy to make too!

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent Ingredients

½ bar Fels-Naptha Soap (You can use other bar soaps. I usually just use whatever I happen to have in the house, Irish Spring.)
1 cup Borax
1 cup washing soda
2 gallons of water (one hot, one cold)

Tools Needed

Large pot that holds at least 2 gallons
Ladle
Long spoon to stir
Grater

Grate the soap bar into a large pot and add one gallon of hot water. Heat and stir until soap is completely dissolved.

Add borax and washing soda. It will thicken very quickly.

Bring to a boil.

Keep an eye on it…

You know that saying about a watched pot never boils? You can stand there and watch and stir a pot of laundry soap, waiting and waiting forever for it to boil and it never will. But I swear the minute you turn your back to check on something else, said pot will not only boil, but it will boil over and cover your stove top with a sudsy foam.

On the plus side, that sudsy foam will get your stove top shiny clean! I’ve read of others using this fancy method of cleaning their kitchen floors too!

Remove from heat and add one gallon of cold water. Congrats- you’ve got two gallons of homemade liquid laundry detergent!

How to Use It

This soap thickens even more within 24 hours. Like reminds-you-of-cheese-curds-floating-on-top thick. I often use the long handle of my stirring spoon to break it up. A large whisk would help to mix it all back together too. I don’t bother transferring it to another container. Instead, I just leave it right in the pot and measure it into my washer from there.

I typically use about a ½ cup of detergent for a full load of laundry and everything comes out clean, with a nice, basic “clean laundry” smell. You can always add a few drops of your favorite essential oil for other scents too!

Considering I paid not even $8 for all of my ingredients and the bar of soap was enough for two batches and I only used 1 cup of the Borax and washing soda (each) , which hardly made a dent in the boxes, I’m loving this price for laundry soap much more!

Want to save even more money in your laundry room? Consider switching to wool dryer balls! I love mine and have been using them for years, plus not using chemical filled dryer sheets has greatly helped my husband’s dry skin.

Yield: 2 gallons

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

This homemade soap works wonderfully cleaning laundry.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Active Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Difficulty Easy

Materials

  • ½ bar Fels-Naptha Soap
  • 1 cup Borax
  • 1 cup washing soda
  • 2 gallons of water (one hot, one cold)

Tools

  • Large pot that holds at least 2 gallons
  • Ladle
  • Long spoon to stir
  • Grater

Instructions

    1. Grate the soap bar into a large pot and add one gallon of hot water. Heat and stir until soap is completely dissolved.
    2. Add borax and washing soda. It will thicken very quickly.
    3. Bring to a boil.
    4. Remove from heat and add one gallon of cold water.
    5. Stir in essential oil for any desired scent.
    6. This soap thickens even more within 24 hours. Like reminds-you-of-cheese-curds-floating-on-top thick. Use the long handle of the stirring spoon to break it up. A large whisk would help to mix it all back together too.
    7. Use about a ½ cup of detergent for a full load of laundry

Other Money Saving Ideas

As the saying goes, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” In reality a penny saved is more than a penny earned and those pennies add up to dollars very quickly.

Saving money on laundry isn’t the only way to reduce expenses for your household. In fact, saving money in the kitchen is probably the easiest way to reduce your expenses. Click here to learn how to save money in a frugal, green kitchen.

Thanks for sharing!

Courtney

Thursday 28th of March 2024

I want to tweak this to not include borax (my son’s skin is sensitive and he can’t use that). I would use baking soda. I am wondering how this would work if I added some epsom salt into it too. I hear that is good for laundry too.

Angi Schneider

Sunday 31st of March 2024

We've never made that substitution, so we can't speak to that. You could make just a small batch and see how it works.

Vivian Wilson

Tuesday 6th of February 2024

Mine didn’t get very thick. I used 1/2 bar of Kirk’s Castile soap. Will it still be usable?

Amanda Idlewild

Tuesday 6th of February 2024

I've found that it thickens up for me overnight, but it should still be usable.

Sarah

Sunday 15th of October 2023

How long does this keep before going bad?

Does it work on HE washing machines?

Amanda Idlewild

Tuesday 6th of February 2024

I use mine in an HE washing machine with no issues.

Angi Schneider

Sunday 22nd of October 2023

We've never used it in HE washing machine so we can't seek to that. As far as it going bad, we've had it last for several months without it going bad, I don't know that there is a standard answer.

Hanna

Saturday 31st of December 2022

My detergent went solid overnight, kind of like jello. Is there a reason for this? Maybe I boiled for too long?

Angi Schneider

Thursday 5th of January 2023

Sometimes that happens. I just stir it with a large spoon to break it up a bit.

Jennifer Burrow

Saturday 24th of September 2022

What could be added to the wash for removing super grime? Hubby is a diesel mechanic, gas, oil, various smelly fluids, grease and other unmentionable grime. Not to mention we also have hard water.

Angi Schneider

Saturday 8th of October 2022

I add a squirt of dish soap for removing "super" grime that's greasy and spray oxyclean on spots that are non-greasy stains. Sometimes if there is a particularly tough greasy spot, I'll scrub it with dish soap before washing. This works even after the item has been washed and dried, you just have to wash it again after scrubbing.

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