I just made my first pass at making laundry detergent. I hunted “recipes” on line for quite a while and found one that I ended up kind of liking (okay, several because they are all pretty much alike).
Recipe:
1 bar of laundry soap (my first pass I used ZOTE because I like what the pink smells like)
2c borax
2c laundry soda
1/2 gallon of water for dissolving the soap
4 1/2 gallons of water to fill the bucket
5 gallon bucket with lid
Half fill the 5 gallon bucket with hot water and dissolve the borax and laundry soda in it. It’s caustic so if your skin is in any way sensitive you might want to wear gloves while you do this part. I didn’t and my hands are none the worse for wear.
Zote is a soft soap (physical characteristics… when grating it, it grated up with a softer consistency). Next batch I will probably use Fels Naphta just to see the difference. If you like smellier laundry detergent, you might add some essential oils to make a scentless detergent smell better.
Grate the bar of laundry soap. I used a regular metal grater.
Put grated soap in a pan with a half gallon of water and heat. Heat is slowly and stir pretty much constantly until everything is dissolved. I read that it takes about 10 min. I stood with a cup of coffee stirring it and it probably took at least 10 maybe closer 15 or so. If I had smaller ribbons off of the grater, it probably would have dissolved quicker.
Once all the soap is dissolved, dump the soap into the bucket and stir everything up really well. Once everything is stirred together, fill the bucket the rest of the way with hot water and stir again to mix it all together.
Put on the lid and set it out of the way for about 24 hours (no, that’s not exact… I only left mine for about 12 hours… some places say over night… it’s not an exact science). I set mine in the garage because it is out of the way and I didn’t want the dogs to get into it.
Some sites say that is comes out a little gloppier than the smoothly gelled stuff you get at the store. Most places say not to panic if it is thinner than you think (waterier) it should be or thicker than you think it should be it will all work fine because all the ingredients are there. Most suggest that you mix it half and half with water.
Mine came out roughly the consistency of wallpaper paste. As you can see in the picture, you can draw on the surface and it stays. The hole at the edge of the bucket is where I dipped out half of a pint jar worth of detergent so I could see if mixing it with water would make it work. It did. I haven’t yet used my first batch, but will with the next load of laundry.
You use the measurements about the same as you would your usual detergent.
This batch cost me $11 because I had to buy the first box of borax ($5) and the first box of laundry soda ($5) and the Zote soap ($1). The next batch will cost me $1 for the bar of soap because I have at least enough in the boxes of laundry soda and borax to make one more batch… Maybe 2, not sure.
I kept a 1.7 gallon detergent bottle (was going to find a use for it in the greenhouse) that we emptied a while ago. I’m going to half fill it with soap and half fill with water and mix it well to make it easier to use in the laundry room.
That’s it from the thicket… love and light.
Granny Fricket's Thicket 