How to Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

If you’re looking to cut out harmful ingredients in every day products you use around the house, laundry detergent is a great place to start. Check out this recipe for a powdered homemade laundry detergent I’ve been making and perfecting for my family for over a decade.

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Homemade Laundry Detergent: Powder Recipe

• 3 cups of each: baking soda, borax, washing soda
• 3 cups of epsom salt (optional: read on for more information)
• 1/8 cup sea salt
• Fragrance booster or essential oils (optional, I add fragrance per load; not into this recipe)
  • Use code: JOHNSONHOMENCFREE in that link for a $45 gift card to use on your next order of essential oils from Simply Earth.

In a well-ventilated area or perhaps even outside*, combine all ingredients in a gallon jar or comparable sized plastic container.

Mix ingredients well.

Use 2 tablespoons per medium load, 3 tablespoons for a large load.

Depending on how many loads of laundry you wash in a week, this recipe can last quite a while. On average, our family of 4 washes about 4-6 loads a week.

If you have hard water, you can add 1/2 cup of white distilled vinegar to your washer (I add to the fabric softener dispenser). This will help remove odors as a bonus!

*many of these ingredients are powders that release dust that can irritate your lungs if breathed in and eyes. Use caution when mixing.

See Johnson Home NC’s disclosure statement.

Why homemade laundry detergent?

I’ve been playing around with this recipe for well over a decade now when our family grew but our income decreased.

Pinterest was new to me around 2012 and I was loving how many people were sharing their crafty ideas and homemade recipes.

That year our budget was very tight.

It was the same year I found my beloved Simple Brownies recipe that caused me to never, ever make another bagged or boxed brownie again! Same with taco seasoning.

This homemade laundry detergent recipe became a favorite for our budget.

Over the years learning that companies knowingly and willingly use harmful chemicals in our everyday products to save them a buck caused me to keep digging for more low to no-tox household products. To reduce the use of harmful things as much as we can.

We aren’t perfect but our family feels good about some cuts we’ve made over the years starting with laundry detergent.

A BREAKDOWN OF THESE INGREDIENTS AND HOW THEY WORK

BAKING SODA

Baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, is an alkaline compound used as a leavening agent that reacts with acid to produce carbon dioxide, or make lots of bubbles.

Remember mixing baking soda and vinegar to create lava for that 3rd grade science experiment? A chemical compound known in the chemistry world as NaHCO3.

That doesn’t mean much to you either, does it?

Baking soda is safe enough to clean with and eat! It’s a must-have, versatile product to keep in your home.

WASHING SODA

Washing soda is sodium carbonate or Na2CO3.

Similar to baking soda but different! You can actually MAKE washing soda FROM baking soda by cooking it down. That’s a lesson for another day.

This chemical is found in plant ash so sometimes washing soda is called soda ash.

It softens the water to allow the cleaning agents to cut grease and lift dirt & grime off but leave them in the water to be carried out with the rinse and not back on your clothes.

Though it is similar to baking soda, it is a different chemical compound and must NOT be eaten or ingested.

Use caution when handling as it is a powder. It may cause irritation of eyes, nose, and throat. Be in a well-ventilated area when mixing washing soda to make a homemade cleaner, perhaps even outside.

SEA SALT

This is made by evaporating salt water.

Sea salt is a water softener, fabric softener, and helps remove some stains such as but not limited to grease, mildew, and blood stains.

EPSOM SALT: the debate

Magnesium sulfate which is epsom salt, is a wetting agent and a fabric softener too but is also a water hardener.

If you already have hard water, adding distilled white vinegar to your washer is going to be helpful. (Try adding 1/2 a cup to the fabric softener dispenser per load.)

So why use epsom salt in this recipe? The choice is yours.

There is some debate about epsom salt in laundry detergents and even washing machines. I’m a big advocate for doing your own research and I also like to experiment. So far I am getting decent results from this current recipe. My clothes are clean, they smell fresh, no noticeable stains.

If epsom salt is properly diluted, it will be fine for your washing machine. I will run my washer’s water (if your washer is set up that way) and add detergent to allow it to dissolve some before adding in the laundry.

Some say that soap will bind to the magnesium sulfate and won’t disperse throughout the water properly. Maybe this is true but again, I’m not having any issues with my laundry currently.

Like I’ve been doing for the last 12 years, I will continue to work with this recipe to try different things.

BORAX: the hot topic

This one is a hot topic too on the internet.

It doesn’t rank well on the EWG’s scale but I’ve also read how, in order to pad their own pocket a little more and get in the good graces of BIG BOX STORES, they have lied about some bad products being good and some great products being bad.

ARE YOU SURPRISED IN 2023, THOUGH?? Because if it’s true, I’m not surprised one bit.

Let’s get to the facts of Borax:

Chemically, “Borax, or Sodium Tetraborate (Na2B4O7 • 10H2O), is made up of sodium, oxygen and boron.

Borax has been used for thousands of years to help launder clothes and clean surfaces because it also softens water in the same way washing soda does.

However, the molecules in borax are much less “sharp” so they dissolve in water “to more easily change the composition of the molecule itself.” As stated here.

Washing Preferences

I do prefer to wash my laundry in warm water to help with the dissolving of these powders but if the garment specifically says cold water, then that’s what I do.

For whites, I wash those in hot water as generally most whites are garments and linens that NEED the heat like bed clothes, washing rags, and under garments.

If you prefer a liquid laundry detergent,

You can find many recipes online that generally contain Castile soap.

This is the main ingredient in my homemade hand soap and dish soap.

My first homemade laundry detergent 12 years ago:

Ingredients were a large box of baking soda, box of washing soda, box of Borax, two grated bars of Fels Naptha OR a box of Zote soap flakes, a container of fragrance booster.

While this recipe was the G.O.A.T. for a long time, I’ve simply decided to try other ingredients to see how they’d work.

I’ve since removed the fragrance booster to add in per load and not into the recipe itself. I’ve also don’t use Fels Naptha or Zote soap every batch I make.

Do your own research!

Check out my disclosure statement HERE.

Do some research on your own. I encourage praying for discernment over all the things you read, watch, listen to, and consume. Note that discernment isn’t what’s right from what’s wrong but rather, the difference between what’s right and almost right.

If you know you do not want your family to be exposed to KNOWN harmful chemicals, start making changes where you can and where you are able. I trust you can make good sound decisions for your family’s health.

More low to no toxin recipes for you

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