Best Natural Laundry Detergent Recipe
Laundry detergent, like many other household items, has unnecessary chemicals and toxins. The best natural laundry detergent recipe is easy to make and will save you money!
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Why Make Your Own Laundry Detergent?
There are a few reasons I choose to make my own laundry detergent. Store-bought laundry detergents have many chemicals & even carcinogens in them. The fragrances are overpowering and can be harmful to your hormones. Also, the prices are getting more and more expensive for the name brands.
Making your own natural laundry detergent is healthier & more cost effective. It is also easy to make and will last you for many months, and maybe even years depending on how often you wash laundry.
Ingredients In Natural Laundry Detergent
Each ingredient in this recipe is unscented and great for cleaning clothes. When combined together they are a powerhouse to clean, remove stains, and deodorize your laundry.
You can mix and match some of the ingredients in your laundry detergent. If you’re out of one of the ingredients, you can go forth with making the detergent without it.
Here is a list of the 4 ingredients used:
- Washing Soda – natural detergent booster and freshener to help remove stains & odor
- Baking Soda – is used to deodorize and remove stains from clothes
- Unscented Castile Soap – natural soap to clean dirt and leave clothes feeling fresh
- OxiClean Baby or OxiClean Free – removes stains and safe to use on colors
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How To Make Your Own Natural Laundry Detergent?
To make the laundry detergent, you will need to grate the Castile soap into small specs. I used a large kitchen knife to slice the bars of soap into small cubes and then ran them in the food processor. You can also manually grate it with a cheese grater.
After you grate the Castile bar soap, you simply combine all of the ingredients together and mix them well. You’re ready to start washing clothes!
How To Use Natural Laundry Detergent?
When you’re ready to wash your clothes, you will use 1-2 tablespoons of the detergent powder in your washing machine depending on the size of the load. I use a heaping 2 tablespoons if I have a really large load or a really smelly load to wash.
You’ll place the detergent like normal in your washing machine in the compartment for powder detergents. It will leave the clothes clean and odor free! After you wash the clothes, then you’ll dry like normal. Check out my All-Natural Dryer Ball Spray for a natural alternative to dryer sheets as well!
*Extra Tip: For a natural fabric softener while washing, fill your tray with white vinegar. I promise, you won’t smell it on the clothes when they’re finished!
How Long Will The Natural Laundry Detergent Recipe Last?
This recipe will wash around 200 loads of laundry if you’re sticking to 1-2 tablespoons per load. If you only do a few loads per week, this detergent will last you for years!
It all depends on how much or how little you do laundry. Regardless, you are bound to save money when you make your own laundry detergent with this recipe!
Natural Switches
Now that you’re making the switch to the best natural laundry detergent recipe, check out these other natural alternatives!
- All-Natural Dryer Ball Spray
- 8 Natural Remedies For Headache Relief
- 5 Easy Ways To Switch To Clean Beauty
- DIY Perfume With Essential Oils
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Best Natural Laundry Detergent Recipe
This best natural laundry detergent recipe is easy to make and will save you money!
Ingredients
- 16 oz Kirk’s Original Castile Soap Fragrance Free (4 bars)
- 4 lbs Baking Soda
- 3.7 lbs Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (1 box)
- 3 lbs OxiClean Baby or Fragrance Free (1 container)
Instructions
- Grate Castile bar soap into little specs. You can use a cheese grater or food processor.
- Mix the rest of the ingredients together with the grated soap & mix well.
- Use 1-2 tablespoons per load of laundry
Notes
To grate the soap, you can chop the bar into small cubes and then run them through the food processor.
Add a few tablespoons of white vinegar to your load of laundry for a natural fabric softener alternative
Nutrition Information:
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 0
I’ve never tried to make my own detergent. How fun
Great recipe! I haven’t tried making my own detergent but laundry goals have cute homemade soaps in cute containers!
This is great, I have been wanting to make my own detergent for a while now!
Great idea! I’ll start looking into making my own laundry detergent. Prices are high these days and you gotta save where you can!
I used to make my own laundry detergent with similar ingredients. But overall decided to stop because it was actually laundry soap, not detergent, and my clothes were really never getting clean! I did not consider using castile soap, however, I didn’t even know it existed in bar form. Thanks for the thoughts! You’ve piqued my interest!
How does this work on odors?
The baking soda works great on the odors. I also put a few tablespoons of vinegar in the wash to help get rid of anything that is causing odors.
I have been making my own similar to your recipe for years and can only recommend it! It’s cheaper, cleaner, and works just as well as commercial detergents!
I have never tried to make my own laundry detergent but this is a cool idea.
Making homemade laudry detergent has been on my to do list for ages now, I must give this a try! thanks for sharing the recipe.
So easy to make! Want to try this, I’ve always been sensitive to laundry detergent
I really want to try this! I’m always looking for natural substitutes and this looks really doable. Thanks for sharing!
Super easy to do, wow thank you!
Thank you for the recipe, I have been making my own laundry detergent for years. I have been considering a new recipe and I hadn’t started searching. This looks great!
I’ve made diy laundry soap before, but never thought of using oxiclean and didn’t know about the baby gentler version! This was super helpful in these tight economic times. Thank you for sharing! Beautiful post and photos, by the way. 🙂
Awesome idea! Keeping this recipe for now and make a big batch once I have the time!
This looks very doable! Great post!
We have also made our own laundry detergent over the years. Such a simple way to help get your laundry clean and a step towards being more self sufficient. Yay!
I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post…