Thursday, September 5, 2013

DIY laundry detergent


I've been wanting to make my own laundry detergent for a while and have seen tons of recipes floating around so I finally decided to do it.  Let me tell you, it's super easy, cheap and I probably won't ever buy premade detergent again!
First I had to find a recipe that will work on my daughters cloth diapers as well as my husbands stinking, sweaty clothes.  In order to do that I searched the wide world of pinterest and asked some of my CD (cloth diaper) using mom friends.  Through all that I decided on this concoction:

1 cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (which I could only find at Wal-Mart, not Target)

1 cup of Borax (Wal-Mart but I'm pretty sure Target and Publix have it also)

1 cup of Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap (found at the local health food store, I got 1 Tea Tree Oil bar and one Citrus Orange bar because they were on sale.  I really wanted the lavender one but they were sold out. I love Dr. Bronner's because it's made with all organic oils and is really mild on skin)



You will need a container to hold the detergent.  I got this at Wal-Mart.  It came with 3 other smaller containers.


                               
 
You can either use a food processor or if you don't have one (like me) just use a cheese grater. 
Grate the bar of soap over a container in order to get 1 cup. 
 
                         
 
Here's what it looks like once grated. 

                                
 
Then add one cup of Broax and one cup of the Washing Soda. 
 
Shake up the container to mix it and enjoy nice and clean laundry and a fraction of the price. 

                                   
 
When washing clothes I use 2 tablespoons and when washing my cloth diapers I use only 1 tablespoon.  When I grated up the soap the bar came out to be more than 1 cup so for this batch I'm leaving it this way but the next batch I'll add the whole bar.  So far the detergent seems perfectly fine on the cloth diapers.  I'll be sure to let you know if I notice leaking issues or smell issues on the diapers. 
 

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