Homemade laundry detergent...

With a few simple ingredients and materials you can make inexpensive, effective laundry detergent. You only need three ingredients - a bar of soap, borax, and washing soda. For the bar soap you will need a simple bar soap without anything added, ie: perfumes or dyes. Ivory, Castille, Fels naptha all work well. I used plain old Ivory.

1 bar soap

1/2 C. borax

1/2 C. washing soda

Grate your bar soap (the finer, the better) into a bowl. Add your borax and washing soda. Mix the ingredients for a good 5 minutes or so until the mixture resemble powdered laundry detergent.

That's it. Store in an airtight container.

Grated Ivory

adding borax and washing soda

all mixed up and ready to store

I have a HE machine which uses half the water of a regular washing machine. For HE machines you only need 1 - 2 tablespoons. Really, that's all you need!

I'm not sure of the amount you would use for a regular washing machine, but, experiment with it. I also do not add any essential oils for fragrance nor do I really know if you can. Again, if you want fragrance, experiment until you find a balance you like.

I've started making my own detergent for a few reasons, but, one of the main reasons besides being cost effective is that it is all natural and will not hurt your septic system. Plus, borax is great with other household cleaning. Nothing puts a shine on your throne like good old borax.

Who say's it ain't grand to be the king?? ;-)