Homemade Laundry Soap

This recipe makes a large amount.  Store it in a 5 gallon bucket.  You should be able to find all of these items at WalMart.

The three main ingredients found in all recipes are the Borax, Washing Soda, and the grated Fels-Naptha or Zote soap. The other two listed here, the baking soda and the Oxy Clean, are optional.

1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (1.81 kg) found in the cooking isle

1 box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle

3 bars of Fels-Naptha soap, found in the detergent isle, finely grated.

2 small containers of Oxy Clean or store brand Oxy Clean (try to get about 3.5 lbs total (1.58 kg)) found in the detergent isle.  (optional)

You can use pink Zote soap instead of Fels-Naptha.  You can find Zote at Home Depot.  (I've also seen people use Ivory soap, Irish Springs for a nice fragrance, and dove)

**Use 1-2 Tablespoons per load. I know that does not seem like enough but this recipe does not have fillers like the store bought detergent so you only need 1-2 Tablespoons.**

This detergent is fairly mild smelling, it is not over powering. If you love a strong scent you may have to add a fabric softener to each load.

The recipe above makes a very large amount and will last a long time... about 9 months.


To make a smaller batch, follow this recipe:


1 C. Borax
1 C. Washing Soda
1 bar of the soap, shaved


Mix together throughly.  Use 1 T. per load.  If you have a front loader, then add it to the drum.  Store in a 32 ox container with a lid. 


Taken from this website:  http://www.diynatural.com/homemade-laundry-detergent-soap/  :

High Efficiency (HE) Washers

HE front-load washers require “special soap” for one reason alone – low suds. Because they use less water, they require soap that is less sudsy. The good news is, this homemade detergent is VERY low suds. The ”special” HE detergent is just another advertising mechanism to push consumers to buy “special soap” for unnecessarily high prices.
Regardless of your washer type, just make your own in confidence.

Safe for septic tanks and fields

This is the best laundry soap to use with septic tanks because it contains zero sodium and zero fillers (like montmorillonite clay) that cause commercial powder detergents to clog lines. It is also completely non-toxic so it will not harm necessary septic bacteria like toxic detergents and antibacterial soaps. Use with confidence.

The thing I like about this recipe is that you can make it very inexpensively and if you wanted to put a batch back for "emergency use" it would keep very well... just leave out the Oxy Clean if you intend to store it.