Homemade Laundry Detergents
Many a time, we look to save up on money through various ways. Laundry detergents available commercially can get very expensive. If you have a job that stains your clothes regularly, buying detergents from the market does become an expensive affair. Homemade detergents are very easy to make and may just cost a few pennies sometimes, for each load. Here are a few easy recipes to make homemade detergents and save you those extra bucks.
How to Make Homemade Laundry Detergent?
There are a few things you need to bear in mind. You will require bars of soap to make detergent powders. While selecting these make sure you do not select heavily perfumed soaps. If you use hard water, a few changes have to be made to the recipe. There are two ways of making homemade laundry soap, a powder or liquid detergent.
Liquid Laundry Detergent
This recipe is for high efficiency front loading washing machines.
Requirements
- One quarter boiling water
- 2 cups of bar soap grated (The most popular choice for bar soaps is Fels-Naptha)
- 2 cups of Borax
- 2 cups of washing soda
Add the soap to the boiling water. Keep the water on low heat. Allow the soap to melt. Keep stirring till the soap melts. Pour this solution into a large pail and add the washing soda and borax to it. Add around 2 galleons of water to this mixture. Stir it till the solution appears homogeneous. Cover the container for a while. Use 1/4th of a cup for each load of your laundry. The liquid detergent sometimes appears lumpy (gel like) when stored. This is normal, just stir it well before using it each time. You can add a few drops of essential oil such as lavender, tea tree oil to every 2 galleons of the liquid detergent to give it a fragrance.
There is another recipe with a slightly different procedure that you can try.
Requirements
- 2.5 galleons of water
- 1 soap bar
- 3/4th cup washing soda
- 3/4th cup Borax
- 2 tablespoons glycerin
Add the grated soap to a quarter cup of water on low heat. Allow it to melt and keep stirring. Take 2.5 galleons of hot water and add the melted soap to it. After this add the washing soda, borax and glycerin and mix it well. a cup of the detergent is enough for one load.
Laundry Detergent Powder
This recipe is for top load machines only.
Requirements
- 1 bar of Fels-naptha soap bar
- 1 cup washing soda
- 1/2 a cup of Borax
Powder or cut the soap bar in a food processor. Mix all the ingredients well. Your detergent powder is ready. Use 1 tablespoon for a light load and 2 table spoons for a heavy load.
The Cost
So is it really worth putting in a little bit of time and efforts in making these detergents at home. Here is a rough break up of the cost in making one batch of detergent.
- One bar of Fels-Naptha bar- $ 1
- 55 oz of washing soda- $2 - $3 .Of this you require 2 cups or cup making the cost of 1 batch around 50 cents.
- Borax- $3 - $4 again of which you use only a cup
A Few Tips
While choosing the soap bars you can also choose other soaps such as ivory soap. Borax and washing soda are available in detergent aisle. Baking soda may be used if washing soda is not available. However this will change the consistency of the gel of liquid soaps. Sometimes to get the extra clean effect, the amount of norax and washing soda can be increased.
Homemade detergents are made use of in many households and prove to be extremely cost-effective. You can try making a small batch to be certain.
