The Best DIY Laundry Detergent EVER!

I have been experimenting with homemade laundry detergent for quite some time now.  The goal has been to both save money and to find something much gentler for my daughter’s eczema-prone skin than commercial detergents.  I originally started out with a powder recipe. Though it did successfully clean our laundry, I was not a fan of the fact that, in my top-loading HE washer, I had to use hot water in order for the grated soap to fully dissolve. I hardly ever wash clothes in hot water because of the susceptibility to shrinkage, as well as the excessive energy needed to heat the water.  After a few more Google searches, I toyed with the idea of making a liquid version but I was totally intimidated by the DIY laundry detergent recipes I saw that mixed up huge 10 gallon amounts of liquid and those that called for lye.

The quest continued until I stumbled a pretty decent recipe and decided to modify it to my needs.

Here’s what I came up with:

I basically start out with 2 empty gallon containers. Using about 3 cups of the water, I dissolve the soap over low heat. Once the soap is fully dissolved, I turn the heat off and add the Borax and Washing Soda until just dissolved. You will notice as these are dissolving that the mixture becomes much thicker, similar to the consistency of a creamy soup. This is what you want.

Once the mixture is dissolved, I pour it evenly into the two empty containers. I then fill the containers the rest of the way with warm/hot water (usually from the tap).

As the mixture sits, it definitely becomes very thick, clumpy, and difficult to pour. After a few months using the recipe as is, I decided to try blending the mixture after it cools to help diffuse the clumps and make it more like the texture of store-bought laundry detergent.  (I used an old food processor that’s solely reserved for non-edible experiments.)  It worked!

This is a very concentrated detergent, so for a typical load of laundry, I use about 1/4 cup of the liquid.

I hope you like it as much as I do!

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