Homemade {Powdered} Laundry Detergent

Since September, I have been kicking chemicals out of our life here in the casa de Voorhees. It has been an adventure, and a heck of a lot of fun, and surprisingly, not very much work! And it has cost very little, which is what really matters to me in the long run. Oh, and no more migraines, far fewer pesky skin irritations...

Last month, I had a bit of a nightmare scenario on my hands. The dreaded skin itching began again. I have had several go-rounds with this unpleasant skin irritation since I was about 20. The first one happened at Disney World after being in a whole bunch of pools and water parks. The second came after going in a hot tub. The others all came after...well...who knows what? I would say about once a year, I have this really itchy, bumpy irritation that takes about a month to clear up, and it can be completely hellacious to deal with. I have determined that at least one of the factors that can set this off are harsh skin irritants, such as cleaning products and most definitely, heavily scented laundry detergent/softeners/dryer sheets. Since we have been using homemade, unscented detergent for 6 months without any issues, I had to really rack my brain for the source of the latest outbreak. Then, I discovered the evil of all earthly evils, stuck up on the inside of my dryer. A Bounce Dryer Bar. While my sweet husband was trying to rid us of static, I was left feeling like a giant ball of itchy frustration. After a few weeks and treatments with a white vinegar dilution, I am doing a lot better. But I am more determined than ever to keep laundry associated chemicals far, far away from my skin. Ugh.


So today I am going to share my most recent laundry soap creation. I cannot claim credit for this at all. Not one bit. There are a lot of laundry soap recipes floating around the internet, and this is based on several of those. We started with the liquid soap from the Duggar Family (of 19 Kids and Counting Fame). I found it worked well for two adults that didn't deal with a lot of stains, but after a while, our whites looked dingy. The true tester of this product was my sister-in-law and her husband and kids, who are all rough-and-tumble types and ideal for introducing a variety of stains into this experiment. It just couldn't cut through the stains well enough for her. So after I worked my way through our massive five gallon bucket of soap (which took five months), we were back to the drawing board. A friend told me about another friend that had been using a homemade powder version of detergent, and she loved it. A fabulous lady that my sister-in-law knows also recommended a powder version. So cute and super pregnant sister-in-law whipped some up and gave it rave reviews. I did the same last night, and three loads later, am very satisfied with this powdered detergent!

I can't testify as to it's effectiveness over the long run, but lots of people use and recommend this. The cost alone makes it worthwhile, but if you have any issues with sensitive skin, try this or the homemade liquid detergent. It will help!

You need four simple ingredients.

-Borax (Wal-Mart or grocery store in the laundry aisle)
-Washing Soda (Wal-Mart or grocery store in the laundry aisle)
-Fels-Naptha Soap (Wal-Mart or grocery store in the laundry aisle)
-Zote Soap (A little more tricky...some dollar stores have this, and your local Mexican market will definitely have it. We get ours at the Rancho Market. It comes in blue, pink and white)

I made mine in a large plastic container meant for flour or sugar. All I did was keep an approximate 1:1:1 ration. One bar of soap to one cup of Borax and one cup of the Washing Soda. The Zote bar is huge, so this is what went down with our making of this soap (they do sell smaller, half-sized bars of Zote as well. Just adjust the ratio accordingly).

Hubby graciously grated a bar of the Zote, which is 14.1 ounces. He also grated a bar of Fels-Naptha soap for me. I put the full bar of Fels-Naptha grated soap in a really large mixing bowl (the biggest I had). I estimated the Zote soap to be at least 3 times the grated volume as the Fels-Naptha, so I added half of the grated bar of Zote and stored the rest in an airtight plastic container. Then, since I had approximately 3 bars of soap in the bowl, I added three cups of Borax and three cups of Washing Soda. I stirred it together really well, and put into the plastic storage container.

To wash, just fill your washer as usual with clothes (don't overfill or the soap won't dissolve), draw the water, and add the soap. One tablespoon for light to regular soiling, two tablespoons for heavy soiling. My sister-in-law said it took her husband's grease stains from working on small engines at work right out of his pants!

The price point on this is also great. Check out my previous post on the prices of these ingredients (the Zote was a new purchase for us, but they are $1/bar, and the bar is HUGE). At one to two tablespoons per load, this will last us for months!

Homemade Powdered Laundry Detergent

Ingredients
-3 cups of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
-3 cups of Borax
-1/2 of a bar of grated Zote Soap
-1 bar of grated Fels-Naptha Soap

1. Grate soap. Place in large mixing bowl.
2. Measure out Washing Soda and Borax, place in bowl. Mix well to combine and evenly distribute all ingredients.
3. Use as you would regular laundry soap. One tablespoon for lightly to normally soiled clothes. Two tablespoons for heavily soiled clothes.