In the quest to free my home of unwanted chemicals and toxins, I now make my own laundry detergent. Not only is this borax free laundry detergent cheaper to make than the Tide Free I used to use, it works just as well or better! In just a few easy steps you can make your own non-toxic laundry detergent as well.
You will need:
- 1 bar Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile soap - Unscented/ Baby Mild
- You can used scented if preferred.
- 1 cup Washing Soda
- 1/2 cup Baking Soda
- 1/2 cup Citric Acid
- 1/4 cup Coarse Sea Salt
- Essential oil {optional}
Instructions
First you'll need to finely grate your bar of soap. I put my bar of soap through the grate plate on the top of my food processor which shreds it.
The I use the food processor to get it to a fine powder. You can you a cheese grater or whatever you'd like, just make sure to grate it finely.
Mix the finely grated soap, washing soda, baking soda, citric acid and salt together. Stir well.
*VERY IMPORTANT* You’ll also want to add a desiccant to your mix to keep the soap from clumping up. They are super easy to make. Just put a teaspoon or two of silica gel in a clean fabric bag or baby sock, and tie up the opening as tight as possible so no gel escapes. The desiccant will absorb moisture in the laundry detergent from the soap bar. The silica is reusable, see instructions on the box for details.
Put your laundry detergent and desiccant in a large bowl where you can have room to stir it around. For the first few days, stir your mix several times a day. After that, the mixture will be nice and dry and there will be no need to continue to stir. You don't have to wait until it dries to use the detergent though.
If you would like to scent your laundry detergent, you can add the desired amount of essential oils to the whole mix, or each individual scoop. Contact me if you'd like to purchase or more information on Young Living essential oils.
Add 1 tablespoon of your homemade detergent per load. For really large or heavy soiled loads, I use just a tad more, but not much.
Order your custom personalized waterproof stickers (or personalized digital downloads for you to print) from Davet Designs to personalize your laundry detergent container.
