Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent Recipe

Making your own laundry detergent is simple, affordable and works GREAT.  Here’s a list of ingredients and directions on how to make it happen.  (All of the ingredients can be purchased on Amazon or at your local big box store.)

I cut the recipe in half because it makes so much and I didn’t have a bucket large enough to mix it all.  The mixture in the jar in the photo above is half without the equal part of water that still has to be mixed with it.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine-

4 Cups – hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup – Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax

– Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

*Arm & Hammer “Super Washing Soda” is not baking soda.  Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent – It must be sodium carbonate!!

•Works well in traditional or HE machines.

•Low sudsing. It is the ingredients in the soap, not the suds, that do the cleaning.

•Clumping and gelling of the detergent is normal. Stir or shake before putting in dispenser.

•For stains, consider using an inexpensive spray-on stain remover before washing. (Zout, Spray ‘n’ Wash, Oxyclean)

Do you have a recipe variation that you love?  Leave a comment below so I can try it out.

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