It Took Only 3 Ingredients to Make This Homemade Laundry Detergent

When my kids were younger, I tried to be careful with everything, from babyproofing the house to preparing my own baby food. In those days my husband and I were also trying to save money, so I started making homemade laundry detergent to help the budget while providing a safe option for tender skin. And it worked like a charm — or did it?

Now that the kids are grown, and it’s just me and my husband at home, I’m still concerned about ingredients, but it’s been over a decade since I made DIY laundry detergent. When I ran out of laundry detergent recently, I quickly turned to Apartment Therapy for a solution. I stumbled upon an article with a similar detergent recipe, so I tried it on one of the most challenging jobs: our washable rug.

I’ve had my Ruggable for over a year, and the amount of foot traffic it gets, coupled with the fact that the rug resides in the dining room, meant that a refresh was long overdue. I finally decided to give this homemade laundry detergent a try and headed to the laundromat to clean the rug.

• 2 cups washing soda
• 2 cups borax
• 1 5-ounce bar of Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Bar Soap (any scent; mine was hemp lavender)
• Large mixing bowl
• A fork, spoon, or whisk (for stirring)
• Measuring cup
• Grater
• Knife
• Airtight container

1. Measure out your ingredients — two cups of washing soda and two cups of borax — and add it to the mixing bowl.
2. Unwrap the bar of soap and chop it into smaller pieces, depending on how you plan to grate it.
3. Grate the soap directly into the mixing bowl. 
4. Stir all the ingredients together with a fork, spoon, or whisk.
5. Store this homemade laundry detergent in an airtight container.

When you go to use the homemade laundry detergent, make sure to add just one to two tablespoons of it to each load, depending on how dirty your clothes are. You may also have to stir the laundry detergent occasionally, as the soap pieces may settle over time. This homemade laundry detergent recipe should be enough for 64 loads if you only use one tablespoon each time.

Making the soap was as simple as I remember, although my hand got a little sore from grating (no biggie — I promise!). As far as cost, I spent $22.44 on supplies with tax, but I only used half of the ingredients for the first batch. My 64 loads cost $11.22, or 17.5 cents each, which is an excellent price in my book! 

However, the more critical question is whether or not homemade laundry detergent works. For me, the answer is a resounding yes. Due to its size and the machine’s capacity, my rug required about six tablespoons of soap, but it came out stain-free, clean, and smelling much better than beforehand. 

So, will I continue to make my own laundry detergent? Again, the answer is yes! Not only does it clean well and go easy on the budget, but it also evokes a subtle sense of nostalgia of making laundry soap years ago.