Home Make your own Cleaners Recipes

Making your own liquid laundry detergent can save you a lot of money! And you can store it right in your used liquid laundry detergent container for ease of use - not to mention that guests who happen to see your laundry room would never know you are not using the real deal, if that is important to you!

4 cups water
2 cups bar soap (such as Fels Naptha or Ivory)
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda (Arm & Hammer is most common)

Important Note!! Baking soda and washing soda are NOT the same thing, even though both are made by Arm & Hammer. If you cannot find it locally in your grocery store (sold in the laundry aisle) you can ask them to order it for you, or use the link above to purchase it from Amazon.

In a large stock pot, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil, finely grate the two bars of soap using your grater. Once water is boiling, add the grated soap, reduce heat to medium-low, and stir until grated soap is completely melted. Pour into a large bucket (if your stock pot isn't large enough) then add borax and washing soda, stirring until they are both disolved into the mixture. Add another 8 cups (2 quarts) of water, stirring again. Allow to cool to room temperature if needed, then give it another good stir to fully combine. Then pour into cleaned recycled liquid laundry detergent containers (will make a bit over 12 cups of detergent).

To use: Give the container a good shaking, then use 1/4 cup of detergent for each load of laundry. You can mark the inside of the laundry cap with a black sharpie to show where the 1/4 cup mark is, if it isn't already marked.