I have been using my homemade liquid laundry detergent for quite a while and I love it. The part I don’t love is how messy my husband is when he uses it. He drips it everywhere! I feel foolish always washing the outside of my washing machine! So, I decided to make a homemade powder laundry detergent instead, and I am very pleased with myself! Here’s how to do it:
Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent
Ingredients:
- 2 cups Borax
- 2 cups Washing Soda
- 1 bar Castile soap (my favorite one is Dr. Bronner’s lavender bar)
- Essential oils (to make it smell nice!)
Directions:
- Grate or pulverize (in a food processor) the bar of soap
- Combine with Borax and Washing Soda. Mix. BAM, you’re done. Easy peasy!!!
- Use 1 Tbsp Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent per load
- If you really want to freshen your laundry, try adding essential oils to each load. We typically use Lavender and Purification essential oils. We only use therapeutic grade oils in our household.
- I broke it down on the cost part: each “batch” makes approximately 96 loads. Each load will cost $0.04! If you bought a box of regular detergent at the store that contained 96 loads, you would pay $0.42 per load. Just sayin’
Well, will you give it a go and try my Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent? It will save you time and money, and eliminate the toxic store-bought detergents!
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21 Replies to “Easy & Inexpensive Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent”
Isn’t the borax bad for you, though? Do you have a dry recipe that doesn’t have borax?
I wrote this post before I did a lot of research on Borax. I am currently coming up with a different “recipe” for my powdered laundry detergent. This is still much better than the chemical-laden stuff at the store however. So, I am currently using this until I perfect the next one.
I am uncertain whether it is any better than the borax however, you can use oxiclean in place of borax. Or you can divy it up and use 1 cup oxiclean and 1 cup borax as the oxiclean and borax together add that extra little cleaning boost.
I make this same recipe and won’t go back to store bought. It’s great!
awesome, me neither 🙂
Is it okay to use with a front loader? I have always been worried to use homemade detergent because of the “he” factor.
It works great in HE because it does not suds! One tablespoon per load is all you need
Kate, how does this do on oil, grease, grass stains, etc.? My husband is an engineer/mechanic. 🙂
Lisa
It gets the laundry very clean and gets out all of the stains we have encountered (think Nurse: every type of bodily fluid!). My husband gets into some grimy situations as do my toddlers. Grease from a mechanic shop is one tough stain so I cannot completely say “Yes” without first trying…
i am suffering from dishidrotic ecxima , is borex harmless in your loundry detergent recipe
I am not sure how it might affect your skin condition, you can always do a skin test by rubbing a little on your skin mixed with water and see if you react
I have a mix very similar to this but I found that it shrunk clothing occasionally if washed in warm water. Also, any new formulation without borax? After my last batch of homemade, I went back to my go to brand I found when using cloth diapers. It lasts a long time and isn’t all that expensive for what you get. (claudia’s choice)
I use baby oxi clean instead of borax. It has an A rating from EWG. That way I can use it for the whole familly!
Read up on borax, it is NOT bad for you! https://www.health-science-spirit.com/borax.htm and https://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/borax.html
Please tell me if this will dissolve properly in cold water wash, which I use most of the time. Thank you!!
I had the same question! Did you get an answer? Or try it out?
Does anyone if this recipe is safe for septic tanks?
Hello Kate! I am currently making a liquid laundry soap that includes borax. I see that you were looking to create a recipe without borax and I wanted to follow up and see if you had done that yet? 🙂 I appreciate your time and look forward to your response!
I actually started using Thieves Laundry Soap and never looked back, its a concentrate so it lasts a long time: https://realfoodrn.com/thieves-laundry-soap/