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How To Make Your Own Laundry Detergent - And Save Big Money 353comments
I’ve been experimenting with making lots of cleaning supplies at home, but this one is by far the craziest - and the most successful. Basically, I made a giant bucket of slime that works incredibly well as laundry detergent at a cost of about three cents a load. For comparison’s sake, a jumbo container of Tide at Amazon.com costs $28.99 for 96 loads, or a cost of $0.30 a load. Thus, with each load of this stuff, I’m saving more than a quarter. Even better - I got to make a giant bucket of slime in the kitchen and my wife approved of it.
Here’s what you need:
- 1 bar of soap (whatever kind you like; I used Lever 2000 because we have tons of bars of it from a case we bought a while back)
- 1 box of washing soda (look for it in the laundry detergent aisle at your local department store - it comes in an Arm & Hammer box and will contain enough for six batches of this stuff)
- 1 box of borax (this is not necessary, but I’ve found it really kicks the cleaning up a notch - one box of borax will contain more than enough for tons of batches of this homemade detergent - if you decide to use this, be careful)
- A five gallon bucket with a lid (or a bucket that will hold more than 15 liters - ask around - these aren’t too tough to acquire)
- Three gallons of tap water
- A big spoon to stir the mixture with
- A measuring cup
- A knife
Step One: Put about four cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat up on high until it’s almost boiling. While you’re waiting, whip out a knife and start shaving strips off of the bar of soap into the water, whittling it down. Keep the heat below a boil and keep shaving the soap. Eventually, you’ll shave up the whole bar, then stir the hot water until the soap is dissolved and you have some highly soapy water.
Step Two: Put three gallons of hot water (11 liters or so) into the five gallon bucket - the easiest way is to fill up three gallon milk jugs worth of it. Then mix in the hot soapy water from step one, stir it for a while, then add a cup of the washing soda. Keep stirring it for another minute or two, then add a half cup of borax if you are using borax. Stir for another couple of minutes, then let the stuff sit overnight to cool.
And you’re done. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a bucket of gelatinous slime that’s a paler shade of the soap that you used (in our case, it’s a very pale greenish blue). One measuring cup full of this slime will be roughly what you need to do a load of laundry - and the ingredients are basically the same as laundry detergent. Thus, out of three gallons, you’ll get about 48 loads of laundry. If you do this six times, you’ll have used six bars of soap ($0.99 each), one box of washing soda ($2.49 at our store), and about half a box of borax ($2.49 at our store, so $1.25) and make 288 loads of laundry. This comes up to a cost of right around three cents a gallon, or a savings of $70.
Plus, you can make slime in the kitchen - and have a legitimate reason for doing so!
Comments
Good stuff, but you can make it a little easier on yourself. Just combine 4 cups of soap flakes, 2 cups of washing soda and 2 cups of Borax in a glass jar with a lid. That’s it…a nice, dry powder that cleans incredibly well!
Tkriger: it works as well as the Tide we were using.
David: that’s a good replacement for powdered detergent, but powdered detergent itself has some drawbacks. My recipe is intended to replace liquid detergent (and it’s fun to make, too).
Do you recommend this even for people with hypoallergenic issues?
Yes Trent, making goo in the kitchen would be good fun, but not sure my wife would go for it. Maybe I will show her your post and tell her “see, other people like science in the kitchen too!”. Thanks for the post Trent!
Very interesting. What does it smell like, if anything? And like David before me, I don’t know if my wife would go for it. It is probably something I would have tried if I was still a bachelor.
I have a lot of dark clothes. Does it cause them to fade any faster?
I would think as long as your not allergic to any of the individual ingredients you wouldn’t have any problems. You could try them separately before you mix up a big batch.
Creative work. I could use the savings in ever load. You just have to spend some time in doing it. Of course, cheap means you have to do some of the work.
I would guess that this isn’t designed for high efficiency washers, which require specific (less sudsy) soap. Is there a different recipe for that?
Also, I didn’t get a real sense for how much time this requires. In your “clothesline” post, you estimated that you do about eight loads a week, which means you’d need to brew a new batch about nine times a year to get the $105 savings. Is the total time spent worth the money saved?
Of course, it sounds like you enjoy the slime-brewing, so the time spent may actually be considered a bonus!
It smells like a mix of bar soap and regular laundry detergent. I haven’t noticed any fading issues. And it only takes about 15 minutes to make, most of which is shaving off the soap; you could just let the bar sit in hot water overnight to do most of that automatically, I suppose.
For high-efficiency, my guess would be that you’d just put in less slime each time. It’s reasonably sudsy.
Sounds fun, but I have no idea where I’d store three gallons of liquid. My boyfriend and I share a 500 square foot apartment with three (small) closets.
Similarly, buying in bulk is not an option. Or stocking up when items are on sale. You do reach a point where there really just isn’t a place to squirrel away that extra package of toilet paper.
Maybe you could do a list of frugal tips for people who live in small spaces.
Amy, I think Trent just mentioned that he lives in a 600 sq. foot place with a little one, so I’d bet that he has a few tips there. Trent, I just put you on the spot.
I might give this a try, but I don’t think I paid anywhere near the $28 for a 100 loads of laundry that Amazon charges. My guess is that they are upping the price to compensate for shipping or something. I’ve hit the sales in grocery stores that can get 30 loads worth for around $5. This is still a good savings, but it’s about half of what a decent shopper should save.
If you don’t have much space mix a smaller batch.
1/4 bar of soap + 1c of water
then
12 c of water + 4Tbls powder + 2Tbls of borax
Now it’s less than a gallon, or halve it again and get about 7c! Feel free to check my work, but I’m pretty sure it’s still the same proportions.
Anyone know if this works for regular soap (like ivory), or if glycerin (melt-and-pour) soap would have the same results?
You could save some plastic jugs from liquid detergent to make storage easier. Or swipe them from your neighbor’s recycle bin on trash night.
Hey, this gives me an idea…I work in a convenience store. We sell detergent. Outrageously overpriced detergent. Off the top of my head, I’d guess that the store could sell this stuff a lot cheaper than the outrageously priced Tide, while enjoying a higher margin (one reason our prices are as high as they are is that our cash flow has relegated us to a wholesaler with easier terms but higher prices). For convenience and simplicity, for this purpose I’d go with the dry powder, all I need now is a way to package it…
Nice work. It takes a creative mind to come up with things like these. You must have tried it many times until you got it right. It could be frustrating trying to do it all over again just to make it right.
On a little bit of tangent, but along the same lines of laundry detergent being pretty expensive I came across this this morning and was wondering if these would be worth a shot.
I’ve made and used this soap for a while. It works great and isn’t that difficult to make. I have used both Zote and Fels Naptha bar soaps because they were recomended when I got the recipe. They weren’t anywhere near as sudsy in the washer as store-bought laundry soap. So it might be fine in the newer HE washers.
On saving the old liquid soap bottle for storage. Mine was gelatinous enough that I don’t think it would pour out of those bottles.
On making the laundry sile portable for the laundromat; you could put enought for 2 or 3 loads into a smallish tupperware thing and throw it into the laundry basket.
I use 1/2 bar of fels naptha, 1 cup borax and 1 cup washing soda. It works great!! For a short time I got lazy and bought some Tide and after several loads I had to make a new homemade batch. I like the way it cleans my clothes and linens. It’s easy to make. Its fun. It works!
Hi! I am in the 7th grade and I am doing a science fair project on green cleaning products and i am going to test your laundry dtergent and compare its results to TIDE detergent i’m sooo glad i found this THANX!!!!
Well right now i am working on my secience fair project. And i made the dtergent last night and i am about to test it. I put beet juice on t shirts and i am going to wash one with TIDE and one with slime!!! The only thing is mine looks different than the picture mine is watery. I am still going to try it. I’ll kepp everyone posted on my results! I
Hi! It’s me Boberta again! well i finished testing and guess what?… This “slime” worked better than TIDE! So if you go on this website make this detergent because it worked better than TIDE! that is pretty impresive for homemade detergent so if you are using tide switch to this detergent that is 3 cents a gallon compared to 8$ for better cleaning quality!
Hola! i found tha answer to my project and slime worked better than tide. that’s right! slime worked better than tide so definetly use this detergent!
this detergent worked better than tide!!!!!!!!!
slime works better than tide
To store it in an old detergent bottle, follow the recipe, then AFTER it gels, add a small amount of water and mix it very well, repeat until it is thin enough to pour. Then simply use a little more in the wash to compensate for the lowered potency.
I am trying to remove as many toxic products from daily life as possible. Is this considered an organic or natural non toxic laundry detergent? What does removing the borax do, less cleaning action? Do you have any recipes or links for other household non toxic natural cleaning products?
Water is an effective cleaner all by itself (that’s why those “eco balls” seem to clea so well)
We’ve never used more than 1/2 the amount of any recommended detergent, liquid or powder (and we only wash in cold water, another dollar saver)
wow thanks for the tip just got my new machine, and was shocked at the price of H.E. soaps. sure will give the homemade soap a try.
I have tried this recipe before. I really enjoyed making it and plan on doing it again. I was unable to find washing soda at the stores here in Alabama, but I did find some stuff at a local pool store. It is a pH balancer that is made of Sodium Carbonate, which is the same as what washing soda is made of. I paid $3.55 for 2 pounds.
I’ll second what Bill said above. I NEVER use the recommended amount of any product. I usually start with something like 1/3 of the recommended amount — that’s what I use with the laundry detergents I get here in England. I did the same when I lived in the U.S. So, using your costs, I would spend 10 cents a load with no effort — but your slime does sound like fun!
The other secret to saving money on laundry is to wash at the coldest temperature possible, and not use a (tumble) dryer. Dryers wear out your clothes faster.
I make soaps using Israeli local products like jojoba oil olive oil etc.will be glad to send if a fellow soaper needs
For less toxic living see Care 2 Ask Annie –
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/
Borax is a less-toxic chemical, like baking soda or washing soda. All are recommended by Annie Berthold-Bond, (AKA Annie B. Bond) of Care 2 Ask Annie. It’s much better/”greener” than normally-used household cleaning products and chemicals.
Borax for cleaning article — http://www.care2.com/greenliving/1494.html
Washing soda for cleaning —
(no fumes, but gloves necessary)–
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/440.html
Baking Soda for cleaning –
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/3131.html
I also like Annie’s book, Better Basics for the Home.
Avi, I would love to hear from you about using different products to make soap, in particular laundry soap.
Thanks so much!
I used this recipe but with the Zote bar soap (.79) and a little less water. It works great! It is a low suds detergent and works great for my he washer.
Recipe is 1/3 bar shaved into 4cups hot water
when completely dissolved mix 1/2 cup borax and 1/2 washing sado until dissolved.
remove from heat into bucket with 6 cups hot water and stir. Mix in another 6 cups plus 1 gallon water,stir and let sit over night.
I make my own detergent but in powder form because I also live in an apartment and don’t have endless storage.
It’s 1/3 borax, washing soda, & soap flakes (threw a bar of soap into my food processor). It works peachy. Because it’s a dry powder, I make batches and keep it in a ziploc bag. Cleans fine, cheap, stores well. When I used fels naptha as the soap flakes the powder was a bit irritating to my nose so now I use a regular bar of soap. The slime method is neat, but I also wouldn’t want to store it around.
Is the math right there at the end? If you can get 48 loads per slime mix and do it 6 times, isn’t that 288 loads? This would only be a savings of $77. Assuming 9.68 for supplies and $0.30 for each load of standard detergent. (Sorry to nitpick!)
Do you think you could use a couple drops of essential oils to give this a smell or do you think it would leave marks on the clothes? I love the idea of making my own laundry detergent but I also like it when my clothes smell “clean.”
Thanks!
Does this receipe work for HE washers? Do you have to alter the receipe any? I’ve noticed that my clothes are smelling a little like meldew lately and it’s not because I’ve been leaving the clothes in the washer overnight. I use tide now but I’m ready to try this.
Thanks,
Susan
Susan - Do you have one of those new upright washers? If so, do not close the door after you wash. Those doors are sealed so they don’t leak and they can get a funky mildew smell if leave the door closed. Leave it open to air out and see if that fixes your problem.
I also am wondering if anyone uses this in an HE washing machine and if it works?
Be careful when doing this. Don’t inhale these substances.
In my washer, adding a little bit of bleach keeps the mildew smell from happening — or at least keeps it from getting into the clothes.
baking soda may reduce mildew odours, and boosts cleaning, as well!
If you live near a university, detergent is one of those things that often gets ‘abandoned’ during the move-out frenzy. See if you can get to a college laundry room while the students are moving out - I scored six months’ worth of Tide liquid and Tide with bleach.
On a similar note, college kids throw out a ton of usable stuff that just won’t fit in the suitcase / station wagon. Usually there are big recycling dumpsters, or just piles of stuff for the taking.
just a FYI this does NOT work in hard water…you will end up in a few weeks with seriously gray whites and the other detergents ARE cheaper as you don’t have to use the recommended amount, half usually works just as well.
How would this work in the dishwasher?
My wife discovered this recipe a couple of months ago, and has been using it ever since. We have 8 children and do a LOT of washing, so this is saving us a grundle. She also noticed the mildew smell, and found a recipe for dryer sheets as well. Except she uses a washrag dipped in the solution and tossed into the dryer with the wet load. She raves about how soft the towels are and how nice they smell.
There are a ton of different recipes on the net for homemade fabric softener, and most of them involve vinegar. She uses one with vinegar and baking soda and essential oil for the scent. If you’ve never dumped baking soda into a container of vinegar, you’re in for a treat.
My wife discovered this recipe a couple of months ago, and has been using it ever since. We have 8 children and do a LOT of washing, so this is saving us a grundle. She also noticed the mildew smell, and found a recipe for dryer sheets as well. Except she uses a washrag dipped in the solution and tossed into the dryer with the wet load. She raves about how soft the towels are and how nice they smell.
There are a ton of different recipes on the net for homemade fabric softener, and most of them involve vinegar. She uses one with vinegar and baking soda and essential oil for the scent. If you’ve never dumped baking soda into a container of vinegar, gather the kids around–you’re in for a treat.
There are recipes for dishwasher detergent as well. And bubble bath, shampoo, lotion, sun block, toothpaste, lip balm, hair gel, bug repellant, perfume, deoderant, shaving cream… Don’t limit yourself. A lot of the homemade products are superior to store-bought ones, and usually the containers cost more than the contents. She has been sharing her products with extended family members, and they are telling stories about how their husbands comment on how soft their skin is, how their acne or eczema is clearing up, etc.
I got this recipe on a soaper’s yahoo group that I belong to and I made it with a little lavender essential oil and sweet orange EO to cut grease. It works great and I love the way it smells and how my clothes smell.
This recipe would be a great way to use up slivers of soap too small to use very well in the shower, or if a guest leaves soap in your shower after he/she leaves. As long as the total weight of all the pieces together is the same as a bar of soap, I don’t see why this wouldn’t work.
Mary– just make sure all the soap is the same kind. I heard of a Dad trying to make ends meet. So he saved up all the ends of all the bars of soap in his house to make new bars. His kids broke out in rashes after the 1st use– they used whatever was on sale so there was several different kinds of soap involved.
Hey, I just found this website and am fascinated. Where would I get the recipes for other cleaning products. Are there other sources of this information? I am unemployed right now and could use all the help possible.
Thanks, dfp4648
First.. this is not a detergent.. it is a soap mixture… because it is not a detergent you must realize that it may not perform as a detergent…
For example, if your wash water is acidic, it reduces the cleaning action (detergent is not affected)…
If you are using hard water (water from the gound verus a lake), the Mg and Ca will form an insoluble scum (detergents are not that affected by hard water)… but one of the your ingredients added is a water softner so it shouldn’t give an oily scrum only a powdery scum… (detergents use a zeolite that trap the Ca and Mg and it is removed with the water)…
But, it is cheaper than commercial tide… but you could probably buy some LAS instead of the soap and have a detergent without the higher cost of a bar of soap… and just add the rest as washing soda and water softeners (and no slime.. just a powder)…
I live in a condo with a laundry room - how do I know if I have hard water? If I do, can something be put in the washer machine load to make it soft water? Vinegar? Ammonia? or something? Also, my son likes to work on cars and get grease spots on his clothes. My husband suggested using a dish soap that has a degreaser in it, but there are still grease spots. Would this slime work - can it be used to spot clean prior to washing in the machine? Any help is appreciated.
For the mildewey smell in your clothes, all washers can develop a smell after time. I use either clorox or vinegar in my washer to get rid of the smell. I just pour a gallon bottle in the washer and run it like a regular laundry load. It smells fresh and clean afterward and my clothes don’t smell bad anymore. I don’t do it regularly, maybe every 6 months to once a year.
This is so cool but i think it cost more than a DOLLAR like you said it wouldnt. Oh well it is still cool!
Speaking of homemade products, I have been using one for my hair for quite some time… As you know, lots of men suffer from hair thinning and baldness, well, my ex is an herbalist and she was studying rogaine and some of the $40 to $50 bottles of hair restoration shampoo… Her herbal blend is something like this:
Ingredients you will need:
1 bottle of Listerine (USE THE OLDSCHOOL YELLOW BOTTLE! DON’T use the green, blue or other flavors like Citrus. Use the plain oldschool stuff)
1 bottle of tea tree oil
1 dropper bottle (the one that has the round bulb like base and the thin long stem at the top…)
Just mix the listerine and tea tree oil together, using the medicine dropper thing (not sure what those are called anyway) and apply to hair! It’s best to only use a small amount of tea tree oil to the listerine, maybe a mixture of 85% listerine to 15% tea tree oil… I don’t know how this works for completely bald men, but my thinning hair has grown out much better! Use the stuff at least once a day…. What this actually does is kill off the bacteria that causes the hair to fall out. So no more messing with saw palmetto extract, which can affect your sex drive… (It’s the excess testosterone levels which can affect hair loss as well)…
Actually, I messed up… You don’t want to apply the substance to the hair itself, rather try and work it into the scalp… You will notice your hair looks a bit different once it starts to work, and after a few months, you will DEFINITELY notice a difference. When I shampoo my hair a few times a week, I use Vive Pro for men (the one specifically for fine/thinning hair), but make sure you use a conditioner afterwards, as it can make your hair a bit rough… Don’t get the 2 in 1 conditioner/shampoo Vive, as the conditioner is nowhere near as good as a separate bottle…
My mother used Fels Naphtha bar soap for laundry when I was young, about 70 years ago. The clothes were always clean and smelled good, but maybe that was because they were line dried. I remember making my own “goo” for hand laundry as an early teen. TSP(brand)and a non-phosphate, trisodium phosphate, found in paint sections, White King water softener, all soften water and aid cleaning and help with grease as does ammonia. DON’T use with chlorine bleach. Do wear gloves when using for cleaning and run the ventilating fans. None of these products have enzymes which help remove organic stains. Hydrogen peroxide works on most organic stains. Bar Keepers Friend mixed with water to form a paste removes most rust stains. Rinse thoroughly. I, too, have had to reduce the amount of detergent by at least one half. With the HE washer I use less than a tablespoonful of detergent. Even so it requires more than two rinses to remove the suds.
i have greatly enjoyed this section of soap making and cant wait to get started making my own i remember wood ashes and lye made in black caldron outside this seems easier thanks so much
I’ve been doing this for 6 months. My clothes are whiter than they’ve been in a long time. My mother lives in the country and has well water with a high iron content. She cannot use bleach on her clothes or they turn yellow. She now has snow white Whites. We use Ivory as we have very sensitive skin all around. None of us have ha any problems with it.
I have an HE washer and it works fine. I store mine in a huge bottle (from my last purchase at the wholesale club) and fill a smaller bottle (from my pre-wholesale club days) for use in the house. I use as much as I would have of te store bought HE detergent. Iv’e had no problems with sudsing or lack of cleaning.
Thankyou for all the posts. After reading this thread, I’m going to check out the fabric softener recipe and see how that goes.
I’ve made my own laundry soap before (inspired by my regular soap making hobby) and used fragrance oils (that I usually use for making bars of soap) in the laundry so they’d smell nice. As the washer is filling with water I drop just a little bit in along w/ the soap so it’ll disperse a little more. Then I put the clothes in when it’s filled. People at work comment on how good I smell and I don’t even wear perfume. You don’t have to use a lot of fragrance-I learned early on. Just a couple of drops per load. I have tons of fragrance/essential oils for soap so I can basically make my clothes smell different every time and however I want. It’s very fun!
One more thing-using the fragrance oil made our basement smell nice!
I think it is cool a guy takes the time and energy to come up with this idea. Good for you, So many weird questions and people refiguring cost.. Hey it is money saving and that it worth a try. Can we say divide the recipe for a smaller batch.. Thanks
In calculating the money savings you do not take into account cheaper soaps such as Purex. You also do not address the energy cost associated with the cooking process. In order for your 3cent claim to be viable I suggest taking into account all costs.
Want an even cheaper way to make the slime? Save the small pieces of soap as they melt away from use. I have been doing something silmilar to this for my towel & bed sheet washes. Thanx for other info on the borax! Enjoy your site
Reading all of this and thinking about my aunts and grandmother. They would buy inexpensive soap and always just added a little borax, a little washing soda without premixing it to boost the cleaning power. In the rinse cycle, they added a dash of old fashioned bluing to the whites. Nothing new. Easier than mixing up all of this and storing it. Off brands of liquid or powder soap and the extra products and you are all set and saving money and no mixing or storage problems. But I guess if you like to have science in the kitchen, you would be missing that fun.
Any answer to the hard water problem? I’ve got moderately hard well water and I’d like to make this detergent if there’s a way to counteract the hard water issue.
I’m interested too in the hard water problem — I was all set in making this homemade laundry soap until I read about the graying whites! Now, I’m bummed out — it appears a cost savings solution for soft water people only.
I’m having a hard time finding the washing soda. Not at Walmart or Kmart. Any suggestions?
Renee - where would one find essential oils for soap making? This is not a craft I know much if anything about.
Will this work with HE washers or will it over-sud?
Hey Jon-
If this slime works well you cannot compare to a cheap soap like Purex! That stuff wreaked havoc on my clothes when I bought it! If it cleans well then it should be compared to a detergent that cleans well. And energy costs should not be that bad.
That being said, it’s not really that big of a savings but if you do this with a lot of things it can add up. (I only do like three loads a week) SO if you wanna have fun then experiment at home and who knows? You may end up with the best smelling sudsy goo that you can sell and really save $$ with!!
tg -
To get grease and oil stains out of clothes, I use waterless hand cleaner. Goop is a common brand, but you can go to your local autoparts store and get a tub of it for less than $1. Just make sure that you get the creme version that does not have pumice in it or is orange scented. It should be a white cream.
Using it is easy. On a dry garment (very important), rub a dollop into the grease stain. Then launder it as you normally would. For really stubborn stains you may have to repeat the process. Just remember the garment has to be dry in order to get the best results.
Is it the only way to get the grease stains out of my boys’ clothes.
This seems like a huge step backward to me. I remember my mom in the 40’s making soap in a large galvanized tub (the one we all bathed in) and how hard she worked to save pennies because having 8 kids was expensive. We couldn’t afford bar soap so she did everything possible to save. Too many sad memories to go down this road.
Sounds like too much work to save 27 cents…I rather pay the extra pennies and get colorguard so i know my clothes wont fade. Give me the instructions to make gasoline…now thats worth something
Kristy: My bar of Zote is about twice the size of a regular bar of soap and also about twice the size of the Fels Naptha soap I have. Is this the size you used?
Carol: My daughter has eczema. Would you recommend I use Ivory in this recipe for her?
Thanks all! I JUST found this website. I may not be as frugal and thrifty as you, but I have “issues” about paying enormous amounts of money for ADVERTISING and PACKAGING! I also ENJOY finding ways to save money. I learned a few years ago (when I was unemployed) that you can often find ways to save HUGE amounts of money without changing your lifestyle.
My then 16 year-old daughter threw a FIT one day because I wouldn’t pay $10 for Bed, Bath and Beyond spray lotion for her (someone had given her some and it had run out). While she was at school one day, I stirred a little dollar-store baby oil (mineral oil with fragrance) into some dollar store lotion. I then added a speck of green food coloring and a splash of her cucumber-melon body spray to make it look and smell like her lotion. I put it in the original bottle and when she came home she threw her arms around me and thanked me profusely! I didn’t tell her until 6 years later what I had done!
Keep up the good work!
Can you subsitute baking soda for washing soda? Can’t find washing soda anywhere. Thanks!! Editor’s note: Baking soda is NOT a substitute for washing soda!
P.S. The baby oil was to thin it down enough so that it would spray.
On another note….
The lady at the laundrymat uses a can of Coke in the wash cycle for greasy clothes and hunting clothes. She claims the acid gets the grease and smell out of clothes.
Also, I use Goo-Gone or De-Solv-It to get grease spots out. It works VERY well.
I just buy an off brand. I buy Sun detergent for $2.29 a bottle. The bottle does 32 loads.
Just got back from the store(s). Bought the washing soda at Kroger for $1.99 (I HATE going to Kroger because everything costs SO much more than my local grocery store!)
The personal size bar of soap is 3.1 oz. The bath size is 4.5 oz. Zote is 14.1 oz. How much should I use?
Sounds like a good experiment for the kids (ie “I’ll let you make goop in the kitchen if you’ll wash the laundry”)
Thanks!
What about adding some Calgon (liquid) to the mixture for hard water?
I made a batch of this stuff yesterday a.m., using a full bar of Fels Naptha. Since our well-water is so hard we use a water-softener (K-Life). I also have an HE washing machine. To compensate for the very soft water and the type of machine I have, I only used 1/2 cup of “slime” in my load of whites this morning. Because I didn’t see any sudsing, I was a little concerned that perhaps the clothes wouldn’t be really clean, but they smelled fine (actually, no smell at all) when they came out of the washer. When they came out of the dryer (sorry folks…no clothesline)I was very pleased with their crisp clean feel and their whiteness. I hope this helps other people with HE machines. Thanks, Trent!
I HAE BEEN USINFG TIDE COLDWATER TO SAVE ON THE ELECTRIC BILL. CAN I USE THIS SLIME WITH COLD WATER ALSO
OK, I made a half recipe last night using 2.25 oz. of grated 1-2-3 Rosa soap (Mexican laundry soap) that I paid $.53 for. I should be able to make about 6 half-batches with the one bar (14.25 oz). I could have used Zote for $.79/bar but thought I’d try this weird pink bar.
I did the soap and water part in the microwave for a couple of minutes, stirring half-way through and then used a fine strainer to pour it into the bucket just in case there might be solids. It turned into a gel quite well but then got a little more liquidy/gloppy as I “broke” (dipped into) the gel today. I should be able to store it in an old laundry detergent bottle without a problem.
I used about 1 1/2 cups of the slime in each load because I have an extra large tub in my washer. I’m glad I had read the posts about not having any suds because I would have been concerned. Then I remembered someone telling me that most of the suds you see are for effect and do not indicate cleaning ability.
As far as I can tell, the slime did a good job of cleaning my many loads of laundry but then again, they really weren’t DIRTY (all girl house). They don’t have any smell, which could be a GOOD thing for my daughter who has eczema, and feel soft.
I’ll let you know whether the clothes got CLEAN when I fold this huge pile of laundry (next month??) :o)
In answer to your dark clothes fading, my adult daughters who wear a lot of dark clothes, line dry their shirts, pants etc. Since the clothes are stiff from line drying, they toss them in the clothes dryer for just a few mins with a fabric softener sheet and a damp washcloth and in 5 mins or so they are soft. They think the combination of abrasion of a whole load of clothes and the high heat causes the blacks and darks to fade. They also turn all clothes inside out for washing to keep the clothes looking newer longer. Also use cold water to wash and rinse.
I have several bars of lye soap. The old fashioned bars of soap used years ago. Could they be used to make this soap. How many ounces of grated soap are needed?
Thank you
I use my vegetable peeler to shave the soap
I’d like info on where to find recipes for the other products mentioned like lotions, sun block and bug repelant.
I made a batch of this soap the other day and did a couple loads of laundry yesterday. It seemed to clean OK but I’m not sure it did better than the store bought stuff only because it didn’t smell quite clean. I did use the recipe as it was except I used Zote instead of a regular bar of soap. Are there any fragrances I could get to add to this and also is there anything else I can add to make it clean a little bit better. Other than that I do plan to keep making it and trying to refine it to make it better.
For those of you unable to find washing soda:
You can heat baking soda to convert it to washing soda. It must be heated above 140 degrees F, though the higher the temp the faster the conversion. I set my oven to 350 degrees for a half hour and used a shallow non-reactive dish for mine.
The chemistry is available at wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate
Mike,
If you need more cleaning power, you can increase the amount of borax (I used equal amounts of borax and washing soda) and/or add a little water softener.
Read the posts above for fragrance helps. Essential oils apparently help. I don’t have any problems with the LACK of smell when I made the slime.
Great post on the green chemistry of laundry detergent. I look forward to future ideas. Thanks.
Due to allergies, I’ve been using a similar (dry) mixture for some time now, and ran into the graying whites problem when I moved to a hard water area. I found that adding powdered Calgon water softener improved the performance in hard water. My recipe is a 1:1:2 borax/washing soda/grated soap mixture, I add the Calgon in the same proportion as the borax and washing soda.
How long can the slime be stored and am I to store it in a cool, dark place like under the sink?
say, i’m gonna try this and use all those pieces of bar soap that are too small to use for anything else. then i only have to pay for the washing soda, boraxo and the water. i know, the bar of soap will probably be a buck or less, but i’ve been trying to figure out what to do with all those slivers of bar soap.
Hi everyone! I’ve been using this for the past couple of months. I’ve got mild hard water and use it just fine. No problems. I do use bleach still when I wash my whites with it and boy are they bright! I did not have any washing soda so I’ve just been using the Arm & Hammer Baking Soda in the big box in the laundry aisle (it says it works great on laundry so I figured what the heck). It gets the clothes clean and that’s all I care - and saves money! I use vinegar in the downey ball for fabric softener and that’s been working great. I do put a little more in it than where the line goes to. I’ve been using a variety of soaps and all seem to work great. I grate it on a box cheese grater I have as my processor broke and they make perfect flakes to use for the dry mix. So, this is a great replacement for the laundry and great for the environment, too.
An HE washer requires HE deterggent. It’s low sudzing. Otherwise it will build up inside the washer and ruin it. Considering they are very expensive it’s not worth it. Unless you have a service agreement and have it cleaned once a year.
To solve the mildew smell it is good to leave the door open but also wipe inside the rubber gasket at the bottom as water and debris collect there. Also use a small amount of bleach to wipe the drum and opening. Most new HE’s have a clean cycle using bleach which runs it through the entire machine.
I can’t wait to try this! I’m just starting to convert to more natural products. I’ve heard that a bit of tea tree oil in the laundry will cut the mildew smell on clothes but haven’t tried it yet.
I make it a habit to limit the amount of things in my house that will kill me or small children in amounts we could ingest. Thus, I don’t use bleach. Ron, if you’re trying to disinfect, mix half water, half white vinegar, and a few drops of your favorite essential oil (I use peppermint or lavender). The vinegar and the essential oil will kill mildew in the same way bleach does and the essential oil hides the vinegar smell.
PS Vinegar can sometime be petroleum-based. EWW! Make sure to get heinz, organic, or another variety which claims not to be.
We’ve been making this for a while now. I posted about it (with our cost breakdown) here:
http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/2006/03/laundry-soap-our-recipe.html
I suggest that for those iwth a small space, it might work to go in together with other couples and make it and split it. But I use the Borax and Washing Soda for most of my other cleaning (floors, sinks, even walls), so it doesn’t take up extra space for storing it since I don’t have a lot of the other cleaners.
When we began making it we were a family of nine living in 1200 square feet, so we were pressed for space, too, but managed.
I like it better than Tide. Tide faded my clothes, this doesn’t. And We do have a newer frontloading washing machine and have it doesn’t suds up too much for the washer. With our recipe we only use 1/3 of a bar of soap, so maybe that’s why. And this way it’s not so thick a gel that we can’t ladle it into bottles. And with it in bottles, you could simply take a small bottle with you to the laundromat.
Has anyone tried this with Ivory soap? I tried the exact recipe with Ivory and it isn’t the slightest bit slimey - just VERY VERY runny, soapy water (yes, I did the exact amount of water called for on the recipe on both attempts). I am wondering if the lack of thickening is because of the Ivory soap? I have to use laundry soap without added fragrances - that is why I picked Ivory. What about the Fels Naptha soap - how much of the bar would I use? (since it is a large sized bar).
Thanks in advance for your assistance or recommendations.
Borax is a MINERAL, not a chemical, so those of you “going green” can rest assured that it’s natural.
I can’t find washing soda anywhere in my area. I have tried to big box marts and a grocery store. Any ideas?
William, I am just using the big box of Arm and Hammer baking soda in the laundry aisle - mine was up on the top shelf at Wal-Mart. I’ve been using it for a little over a month now and works great. Right on the box it says great for laundry, house cleaning, etc.
You can turn baking soda into washing soda by baking it in the oven - under intense heat, baking soda turns into washing soda and produces small amounts of water and carbon dioxide (hey, look, it’s the chemistry geek in me coming out). Is there a need to do this? Washing soda is a better cleaning agent; baking soda is really mostly effective as a fabric softener. I think, unless your clothes are filthy, that baking soda would be an appropriate substitute.
Very sceptical “MOM”!!! Thought I would try it. I found washing soda at Kroger for $1.99 for a 55oz. box. Wal-mart didn’t have it. Sheet rock mud bucket came from my neighbor. Cleaned out the dried mud. Looks brand new. Lid actually seals. This stuff works great!!
Trent,
How long to I bake the baking soda in the oven for and at what temperature. Is the quantity an issue?
I am excited about trying this.
Helena: there’s no tried and true recipe for it. The one time I did it, I just spread baking soda out on a cookie sheet, put it on the broiler rack, cranked the oven to broil, and let it sit there for a long while (an hour, maybe). I don’t think I got 100% conversion, but it converted some of it.
Charlene, we’ve made it with Ivory soap, and our laundry soap has never ‘gelled’ enough that there’s any trouble putting it in narrow mouthed plastic bottles and pouring it out. It works anyway. In fact, we’ve made it with all kinds of soaps, including Goat’s milk, natural lavendar, and forty year old bars of something called ‘American Family.’ Cleans our clothes just as well. I kinda think the main function of the bar of soap is helping the stuff thicken a bit, but that’s just my guess.
My husband manages a grocery store, and if a customer asks him if he can get in a certain product, he will look into and see if he thinks it’s worth the risk to stock it at least once and see how it sells. He figures if one customer is brave enough to ask him, there may be others interested.
lmart:
You can get all this stuff from Amazon:
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, 55 oz by Church & Dwight Co./Arm & Hammer Div.
$2.69
FELS NAPTHA BAR 5.5 oz by DIAL CORP
Buy new: $1.75
20 Mule Team Borax, 76 oz
$4.19
Fels Naptha is scented now, and not a good choice for those with skin allergies. Also, as I explain on my blog, the reason most recipes specify Fels Naptha is because they are based on older recipes (from our grandparents) when Fels Naptha had Napthalene in it. It doesn’t anymore, and Fels Naptha is not required for this to work.
heyy i am doing a science research project at skool and need to make washing POWDER not liquid!! does any one have a cheap and efficient recipe????! and does phosphate in laundry powder effect the wash??! as in…is phosphate laundry powders more efficient then the environmental stuff that doesnt contain phosphate???!
All I know is this stuff really works. My husband works in a meatlocker and I have two rowdy young kids who get very dirty and everything comes out clean and the towels don’t have that stiffness to them anymore, they are really soft! Great stuff! I might try getting some of the washing soda next time to see if that makes a difference instead of the baking soda.
I just finished my first bucket of slime and now I am getting ready to make another. I love it! My clothes come out so soft. I am also trying to line dry my clothes as much as possible, because nothing smells better than lined dry clothes. It will be 96 degrees here in Northern Kentucky, so the clothes will dry faster and cheaper than in the dryer.
I also like making this because it is so much better than buying plastic bottle after plastic bottle of detergent. Where do those bottles end up? In a landfill for all eternity. The bucket I purchased, however, will be used over and over and never disgarded. Thanks, Trent, for a great money and environment saver.
I’ve now made and used my second 1/2 batch. The first was made with Rosa 1-2-3 laundry soap ($.53 for 14.5 oz. - bought in a Mexican grocery, recommended by a Mexican lady, and cheaper than Zote!). The second batch was with Fels Naptha. Next time I will make it with Zote and let you know which one works the best.
I found that once you break the initial gelatinous mass (slime), it has a tendency to break apart. If you have an immersion blender/mixer, they are GREAT for breaking up the slime so that it will go into a bottle. You may have to do it twice but it will then stay “broken”.
OK, for the chemistry geeks…..
Some laundry detergent recipes I’ve found online call for glycerin. What does glycerin do for the laundry? I noticed that Rosa 1-2-3 and Zote both have glycerine in them.
Mia, you can make this as a dry laundry soap. Just grate the bar soap really, really small, using cheese grater (on the food processor would make it easier), and don’t heat it or add water. You’d only need a spoonful for each load I would guess.
When my detergent turns gelatinis? could i add vinegar and grapefruit juice??? lol or just vinegar and some cheap good smelling not hard to find essential oil any tips???
My first batch is “cooking” now (congealing?). Will try it out tomorrow. This will be so cool if it works. The ingredients for many batches takes up much less space then a bunch of jugs…
I was wondering if the dry powder would work with septic systems? I notice it dissolves really well and such a small amount is used in the wash that I don’t think it would clump up together like regular dry detergents would. Any ideas? I love using the powdered homemade stuff but want to make sure it won’t clump up in the septic system. Any input? Thanks!
Borax might be naturally occuring, but then so is mercury, and they’re both still poisonous. Borax has a ph of about 8 or 9, and 5 grams is enough to kill someone, so I would be very careful using it.
Washing soda is also high in ph. In fact Baking soda which is not as strong, can easily be substited for it in this recipe.
Personally, as a real greenie, I would use just baking soda with a mild soap, along with an essential oil like melaleaucca for a nice smell.
The proof is in the pudding I guess. If it cleanses ok, well, that’s enough isn’t it?
okay, what exactly is the end product supposed to look like? mine looks like soft tofu on top and water below.
I found the Arm and Hammer Washing soda in 55 oz bags. Is this the right size for this recipe? Thanks!
Mine turned out similar to nc’s, is that the correct texture? I am also looking for safe and green water softener. I’m trying to make everything more healthy for the chitlins, and any help would be greatly appreciated.
Question: if you use this with cold water, will it harm the machine? (Maytag top loader, about 8 years old, if that helps)
Thanks for any advice!
I want the formual to making HE Soap in a 5 Gallon Pail, Please. I have a He Washer Machine.
I made this recipe today using a 4oz. bar of Kirks Cocoa Castile Soap (.99) and Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (the box was a lighter yellow than regular Arm & Hammer found in the detergent aisle), and 20 Mule Team Borax. I added orange essential oil for added grease fighting power and lavender essential for a bit of additional fragrance. This made a pleasantly clean smelling result combined with the Kirks Cocoa Castile Soap. I have 3 small children and a husband who hauls steel (they call them “dirty shirts” for a reason!) – so I hope this concoction does the trick, all the while saving me $$$. I’ll post my results soon!
P.S. – my price breakdown: This recipe actually makes 52 cups of soap if you consider the 4 cups hot water you dissolve the bar of soap in and the 48 cups (3gal) you put in the pail. Trent’s recipe states 48.
$1.49 for:
52 – 1cup washes = 2.8¢ per load
104 – ½ cup washes = 1.4¢ per load
208 – ¼ cup washes = .7¢ per load
Depending on your soil level you can save even more than the average 2.8¢ per load!!!!!!
I bought the borax, washing soda and 5 bars of octagon soap for $9.83.This is enough to make 13 batches. With left over borax for other household cleaning. Say I use 1 cup a day, that’s 30 a month. 13 batches is enough to last at least 1 year( most likely more) for under $10.00. I premixed mine in 8 ounce jelly jars. The first jar labled part one had the 1/3 bar octagon soap. This filled the 8 oz jar when grated. Then I mixed the 1/2 cup borax and 1/2 cup washing soda in the other jar labeling it part 2. I did this with the 13 batches and have them ready to just dump and mix when one batch runs out.These can be reused for years. I am also planing on trying to sell this at a local farmers market for say 5 (maybe 5.50 -6) dollars a kit with the instructions. This comes out to about a dollar ( including jar and instructions) per batch kit to make. I will make about 4 dollars a batch (if not more). If everything works out fine.
They sell a kit of( if I remember right)7 bars FelsNaptha, 1 box borax 79 oz and 1 box washing soda 55 oz for over $20.00 on soapsgonebuy.com! Still a great savings but you can make it cheaper yourself. But if you can not find the ingredients yourself and still want to try it out that is the way to go.
I have found this solution works very well for getting stains out of whites. I wash my military whites seperate (because I like to hand wash these and give them extra care) in the sink with about 1/8 cup washing soda, 1/8 cup borax and a little octagon grated in the hot water. Any stains I rub with an extra bar of octagon while I wash. I actually got a stain out that a tide pen would not make a dent on. The clothing does not smell after and is sparkling white.
This is great for HE washers for those of you still wanting to know. Won’t suds much but it does work. I find that if you want scent, buy a little clean laundry smelling body spray and spray lightly on the load after it comes from the dryer. This is cheaper than the essential oils( especially if you can find it on sale) I have seen. Essential oils can be found on any web site for making candles and soap.
I have also found that you can get 64-1/2 cup loads out of a 2 gal bucket or 32-1 cup loads for heavily soiled laundry. This I have calculated to less than a penny a load depending on the ingredients costs (I found mine on sale and stocked up!). If I am more worried about a load of extra dirty whites I occasionally add a scoop of oxyclean.
This has saved so much room in my cleaning cupboard (along with other homemade cleaning products) and I have enough on hand for over a year at a load a day.
Didn’t intend for this to run so long but this is a great solution to low income/ one income families. You can make powdered forms or liquid, stronger or weaker solutions, large buckets or small. You cut down on wasted plastic that will sit in a land fill for generations to come and cost of over all soap! Plus the finner you grate the soap the less time you need to cook the solution so it really does take a whole lot of energy to make just a little muscle power. Use vinegar as a softener and hang drying your clothes and you are saving bundles. I have found a bucket of detergent at Sam’s Club 200 loads for 11.22 and I still find this to be a huge savings.Plus you have fun at the sametime!
Well enough from me. Hope this helps someone out.
where do you buy borax
This might be a dumb question, but I’ve looked for “washing soda” everywhere w/ no luck. I used baking soda instead because it was the only thing “in the detergent aisle w/ Arm & Hammer logo” as the instructions say. Am I really using the same thing or is there washing soda out there somewhere? Thanks.
I guess if I would have read more replies here, I would have answered my own question. Sorry and thanks. ; )
I have been using this slime for awhile now and love it. I do add a bar of Fels Naphta ( don’t know if I spelled that right) for the extra cleaning power though. You can usualy find it along with the washing powder in the grocery store. Here they have it at Price Chopper and Hy-V. You can also make your own fabric softener that works great. Mix 2 cups of baking soda with 2 cups of white vinager and 2 cups of water. Keep in mind that the soda and vinager will bubble like a volcano so mix slowly. There will be no vinager smell in your clothes and they will be SO soft! I recamend that you use a Downey Ball to put the mixture in and not the frabric softener despenser on your washer. You will need to stir it a little each time you use it.
I also tried miiex one batch using the recipe and was quite happy with the results. I could not find washing soda where i live but i found a site with a similiar recipe that said that OXI-CLEAN WOULD WORK just as well as the SODA i used it and was happy with results. ANyone else used OXI CLEAN?
Also some mentioned home made recipes for Shampoo, bath soap and a couple others WHERE can i find the website with these recipes?
I have just been downsized. this looks like a great way to save money! thanks
I have found that if you mix:
1 cup washing soda
1 cup oxyclean
1 cup borax
( can add sea salt for an added scrubbing agent)
You can soak stains out of perceline tubs/sinks and while you are at it soak your cleaning sponges in the sink or scrub your trash cans in the tub. Soak blinds in the tub while whitening it. If you add a cup of storebought detergent or a bar of laundry soap to this solution it makes a great soak for greasy pans or stove top burners. Makes grease rub right off dishes. Put half a cup of this solution in the toilet and let it sit. Scrub a little and flush.There is so much you can do with these few ingredients beyond laundry soap.Have fun! And experiment. Just make sure you know your ingredients before you start mixing. Don’t want to create anything dangerous. Label and keep away from pets and kids.
I have just read every response on here and no one came back with the answer to several others’ question of where to find the recipes for the sun block and other things mentioned. Thanks.
I’ve made several batches of this laundry soap and have used it for a couple of months now. Whenever I go into a different grocery store, I look to see what kind of laundry bar soap they have and have used several (Fels Naptha, Zote, 1-2-3, Kirks Castile and another than I’m not too sure about yet). I don’t have a preference yet. They all seem to clean just as well. I just bought 4oz. of lavender essential oil on ebay so that I can add some for a little fragrance. This soap works as well as any detergent I have ever used, regardless of price.
I don’t usually use fabric softener but thought I’d try using vinegar in the rinse cycle. The more I thought about it, I decided not to because vinegar costs $2/gallon at my grocery store and that’s almost what I spent on laundry detergent! Using it would defeat the purpose of making the soap and I didn’t use it (fabric softener) anyway, so why start now?!?!?!?
One more thing……
I have been using peroxide, which I buy in large bottles at Walmart for less than a dollar, for any kind of stain that’s organic. I wash and dry the item first and then put peroxide on the stain and re-wet it every so often just to keep it wet for several hours. This works VERY well on baby clothes (food, formula, other icky stuff), food stains, and bloody items. Again…..you MUST wash and dry it FIRST before using the peroxide. I put a pull-top on the bottle that I got from a dish detergent bottle. This makes it a LOT easier to use!! (I use water bottles with sipper pop-tops for LOTS of things in the kitchen like cooking oil, vinegar, vanilla, and other liquids. It makes pouring and measuring them a LOT easier!) Wash the item again after using the peroxide.
Here’s something I’m VERY glad I discovered:
My grandson threw up on a brand new T-shirt that he got at the zoo. Before my daughter got around to washing it, it had mildewed BADLY. My daughter paid WAY too much on that T-shirt so I decided to try the peroxide on it. Again, I washed it and dried it and then put peroxide on all the little dots of mildew. I worked it in with my fingernail (a LOT) and kept the stains wet for several hours/overnight. The mildew is GONE! I had never had any luck getting mildew out without bleach but that wasn’t an option with this BRIGHT YELLOW T-SHIRT! I had tried everything I could think of and many of the items suggested on a number of websites with no luck.
Tonight I was looking at my cleaning supply list because I’m taking a week off to do “fall cleaning”. The more I looked at the list, the more I realized that I can make my own cleaning supplies and save a LOT of money and probably make something that works better than what I can buy!
Just thought I’d pass this on. I’m really glad I found this website. It has persuaded me to make a variety of cleaning products that I had never tried before and has saved me LOTS of money!
THANKS, TRENT!!
Can you use Cold Process homemade soap with this. Will the Lye effect the laundry soap?
Here in Slovakia (Europe, formerly part of CzechoSLOVAKIA), you can still get bar laundry soap (see http://www.palma.sk/palmakategoria.php?ID=11). We use it for occasional washing of clothes when travelling, but also for regular washing machine jobs (in that case, I also turn it into the slime). Note that to get rid of soap residues, you are well advised to use vinegar (a plain one, not made of vine or apples) in stead of fabric softner. Otherwise, your clothes will get duller with each washing. No worries, vinegar disappears completely even before drying cycle.
Using this soap in conjunction with vinegar, you get perfect results for a fraction of cost while avoiding ugly chemicals.
Jan, Bratislava, Slovakia
Have any of you tried storing your liquid detergent in empty gallon water bottles, use a funnel to get it into the gallon jugs. I keep mine in my laundry room. You can re-use the jugs a couple times.
I’m on my second batch of this stuff and I use one of those giant kitty litter plastic boxes for mine and it works perfectly. I love this and my friend just made hers too :)
Heat it back up in the microwave if you want to liquify it in order to put it in a bottle. Just shake it WELL before using it or it won’t come out of the bottle.
You can use ivory bar soap or any kind of bar soap like Aveeno (cost is a little more then). I found that the soap works well for my clothes and it doesn’t have any irritants for senitive skin users. My son has ecema so we have to be careful on what we use. We are use to the soap not having any smell to it. You can also put some Tea Tree Oil in your soap or fragrance if you desire. We buy a 2 GALLON tupperware jug to put our soap in and it works well. I give it a 5 star raiting. Thanks for those people who share easy expenses like this.
Be really careful when using sudsy things in HE washers–you can destroy the filter and some other parts if you constantly have an excess of suds. My washer will actually pause itself if there are too many suds, but you definitely want to make sure this never happens. Also, as another commenter pointed out, bar soap can leave horrible residue unless couteracted with vinegar. I would be really concerned if you have an HE washer. We save a lot of money because I don’t use a special HE detergent in my washer. I just buy a huge 30-gallon bucket of store-brand detergent (on sale, 3.99-5.99) and use about 1-2 tablespoons in the compartment. I also boost really stained loads with maybe a few teaspoons of OxyClean, and I directly stain treat with a product like Spray N Wash or Shout. Our clothes come out great. It would cost me about the same or more to make my own soap, and I would constantly have to worry about build-up, suds, and other possible problems (like ruining our clothes or our washer that we saved and saved to buy; it is the first washer we have ever owned, by the way). To me, this is not worth it. I guess if you have a regular washer something like this would save you money because you go through soap faster. Hope this helps those with HE washers, and maybe someone who’s really pressed for time.
re: Hey, this gives me an idea…I work in a convenience store.
> For convenience and simplicity, for this purpose I’d go with the dry powder, all I need now is a way to package it…
Terry @ 11:20 pm March 15th, 2007
You’ve possibly already figured it out by now, but just in case: why not go the way of the Bulk Barn stores and just sell it by the pound/kg? You might have to mix in (an) additional ingredient(s) to keep if from becoming one big solid (a little maltodextrin is added to salt, for instance, to make it pour easily) and let your customers scoop out as much as they want to buy, either into their own containers from home, or into a bag, or into the kind of plastic containers that you get Chinese food in (which can be bought cheaply, wholesale) which you’d sell for one or 2 cents each. I think you’d have a real winner on your hands. (Hey, I’d shop there for this product, alone… any chance you could open a store in Ottawa?)
The laundry soap intrigues me but I’m concerned about using this product with hard water. One comment mentioned this and I want to make sure my laundry isn’t going to get screwed up using hard water.
Thank you.
Mary Fuller
This is not a good idea. If you use one serving of laundry detergent per week, using 288 servings will likely take you five years! All the while, you will have a large bucket of slime sitting in your house, taking up space, and acting as a potential hazard for small children and pets. Also, the slime is likely to lose its hydration over the course of five years, reducing your potential utilization of it.
This all sounds great. But, I think I would rather make some home made Kahula in the kitchen. Lot easier to clean up the mess.
To save time & effort while making the Laudry Slime Soap:
To reduce de soap bar into tiny particles, use a grater rather than a knife. Afterward, for those who have a blender, put the grated soap in at high speed for a few seconds… you shoud end up with soap flakes which will melt in a snap!
I didn’t test with the blender yet but it should work nicely. Dont forget to rince your grater & blender after use.
I have been using the homemade slime for about 4 months…I make mine with Fels Naptha. This is a great product for cleaning sinks, faucets, tolets, and countertops. I also use this in the dishwasher, just fill the cups as usual.
For our dark clothes (especially the first wash): I always pour in some vinegar and toss the items in inside out. I also cut the amount of detergent and don’t use softener. Keeps them looking new.
I am massage therapist needing to wash alot of sheets often. I am needing to take the massage oil off the sheets whithout making look or feel dull do u recomend this product
I am having a problem getting the laundry soap to become slimey. It remained very watery. I am fairly certain that I followed the directions exactly…Any ideas what I did wrong. It still works, but being a creature of habit (and used to more slimey liquid)I was dissapointed. My friend experienced the same reaction. We are eagerly waiting to hear from you. Thanks.
It’s just fine if it is a bit watery - just mix it up well before filling a smaller jug with it (for pouring) and then shake that jug a bit before pouring a shot into your washing machine. The difference is in the soap - fels naphtha soap makes it get more gel-like, whereas other soaps can create a more watery texture.
howto make detergent
Well, it’s been a couple of months since the recipe first appeared here. I hope that CHAR (7/02/07) has reread the recipe and used the proper ing. NOT Boraxo,it’s 20 Mule Team Borax. Hopefully she just made a spelling error,but it sure caught my eye. I appreciate the tip about wiping down the washer, esp. the gasket, with vinegar. Lately the front-loader in my building has been “smelly”, hopefully this will help.
For the one who added mineral oil to lotion, just FYI. Mineral oil is a petroleum by-product. It clogs pores and is proven to cause lots of skin issues. It will feel creamy for a moment on contact but will NOT have any softening effect or combat dry skin - it will make dryness worse. Watch your popular stores for mineral oil in many cosmetics and body products. It will show negative results soon, don’t have to wait til you’re 90. There are companies who offer products that don’t use chemicals. I can steer you if you’d like. Granted, at the time you did that for your daughter, it may not have been known how mineral oil damages skin…so to be fair I want to say that.
Oh SORRY, I said I could steer anyone interested in bath and body products to a company that doesn’t use all the junk…email me if you would like to know. I don’t know if I can say more specifically on this site. I use everything for the body from this site and on my family and friends with eczema, psoriasis, teen acne, rosecea, etc. These products are FREE from DEA (cheap foaming agent in almost everything,) preservatives, alcohols that dry the skin, mineral oil, and the chemicals that make a perfume last all day. You know, remove the junk and you can help just about anyone. I’ve seen it for almost five years!
I bought the items today to my my first ’slime’ and will do that tomorrow! Thank you for the recipes and ideas and I will look again but need to know how to find a site for the homemade fabric softener?! Thanks, Leigh
Good idea, and I’m not even a hippy or a green person by any means.
But having less kids is the quickest, cheapest and most obvious solution for what you call “saving the planet”
Not having children is very short-sighted. It’s far better to have children and teach them well, so they can spend their life being good people. I agree with “don’t have children” if you’re basically just going to turn them loose to run amok without educating them.
I have made a couple (1/2) batches of this
and ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I really don’t care about the savings so much, although it is a plus, what I love about it is that it is not full of toxic synthetic chemicals and purfumes(also full of chemicals)like laundry soaps are. I last used the Fels Naptha bar and like the fact that it doesn’t make your clothes smell perfumey - they just smell clean:) The only drawback, for me, with the Fels Naptha bar is that it contains perfume…so this batch wasn’t as chemical free as I would have liked! *I use the fine side of a box grater to grate the bar. It melts down in a matter of a few minutes - NOT a whole lot of time required here people! A lot less time than a trip to the grocery store would take…and it’s actually a lot of fun to make! Maybe I am easily entertained, but I don’t seem to hate doing laundry so much anymore ha,ha! Before making this, I used Tide Free and Clear and my clothes NEVER smelled clean. Better still, they FEEL clean - don’t have that soap residue feel - AND they are soft! I haven’t had any issues with color fade and my whites look great:)
I’ve convinced several family members to give this a try and they all love it as well!
Thanks Trent for the GREAT recipe:)
…wish someone would post the above mentioned recipes…!
Actually Trent, I think Tom has a point and you may be the one who is short-sighted. I believe he’s referring to over-population as the root of environmental problems as opposed to, let’s say, frowning at the person who doesn’t throw their single aluminum pop-can in the recycle bin. However, I do agree with your assessment of educating children properly. Though it seems the children are the ones educating the adults about more eco-friendly products and habits, eh? Didn’t mean to get off topic since this is a thread for making your own laundry soap.
Hi all!
Well i done a batch but its still not slime after 3 days. I got soapy water with a white cloud on top. The cloud texture is almost like paper pulp.
Which of the ingredients make it turn into slime?
Is the bar soap makes a difference? Lye or glycerin?
Thanx
I just made my first (1/4) batch of this. I have very hard water so I added additional borax to soften it. (1cup extra for the 1/4 batch). I love this stuff!!! For those of you who want to add a fragrance and are looking for a source for some of the essential oils, etc: the best source I found is a company in Utah called Majestic Mountain Sage (www.thesage.com). They provide supplies to people who make soap and all kinds of other beauty products at home. great recipes also. For anyone worried about a bit of scummyness left in the washer, every once in awhile do a cycle with no clothes and no soap but throw in a handful of citric acid (you can get it at winemaking shops or I order it from the place I just mentioned ($9 for a 5 lb bucket). It’s great to get the scummyness out of your dishwasher too.
Adam, who in the world does only one load of wash a week? I do on average at least 2 per day for a family of 5 people!
I have made my own laundry soap for some time now and I would never go back to the store brands. One thing I would share with parents of school age children is, that if you have ever had the problem of kids coming home from head lice, make this soap and add about 30 drops od tea tree oil for the whole bucket. I have been a hair dresser for 30 years and I have had to deal with parents frantically calling me asking what they can do to prevent the kids from catching them, or how to get rid of them. Lice hate the taste or smell of tea tree oil, use it in your shampoo and laundry soap and it seems to keep them at bay better than anything else. Of course, use good judgement and keep it out of their eyes and in a safe place. I hope this helps, it’s a real pain to deal with
For those wanting to get grease out of clothes, use Simple Green. I cook a lot at home and often get oil splatter on my clothes. Just make sure you saturate the grease stain before putting it into washing machine. This stuff works on oil spills on driveways too. Just spray on and add a little scrubbing power.
I just stumbled upon this site (and post), and I can say I’ve been making a version of slime for a long time, and it works better than any store bought detergent. Since this stuff doesn’t suds up, it’s perfect for HE washers, like I have. I did see some mentioning the mildew smell in the washer, and had to mention http://www.smellywasher.com. I’m not affiliated with them, but their PureWasher product was recommended to me by a repairman. He said it does better than bleach at removing the smell from the gsakets, and it’s not as harmful as bleach.
Can this “slime” laundry soap be used in cold water?
Also, is it 1 cup of “slime” that I use in each load of clothes?
We use well water and we also have the Culligan Man come and put salt into a water softner (I think that’s what it is). This slime would be okay to use??
Thanks!
i am just making my my second lot of this stuff it is fantastic. My daughter had eczema and since using this not only have i saved a fortune her skin is all clear, how wonderfull. thanks a million and if you thinking of making this go ahead it great fun.
Well done
1 more question. Do you need to keep the lid on the container of slime? If not will it try out ?
My mother used to bathe me with the Napa soap (the same one she used to do the laundry with) It burned like hell.
Today, I am allergic to all soaps and laundry detergents. so, now I make my own soap with all natural ingredients and no tallow (animal fats) It’s not cheap, but my skin is well worth it.
I have a bar of my lavender soap soaking right now.
I plan to make this laundry goop and give some to my neighbor with six children to try. Thanks for the recipe.
I love this stuff!!
The first batch I made I used Irish Spring and it was slimy but a bit too watery I think. I made a second batch to see if maybe I measured wrong but it is still watery. Does anyone know why that would be?? I don’t care because it works amazing but I thought it was suppose to be thicker.
My daughter thinks it is great also. We had some old close in the basement that we have been trying to get rid of the musty smell for a long time, we tried this stuff and it worked with just one washing!! Thanks a million!!
I took a quick gander at some of the comments. Some may have been answered but I’ll tell you all what I know and hopefully it will help you.
1)Washing soda is also known as soda ash or sodium carbonate. If you can’t find the A&H washing soda then look for sodium carbonate in stores where they sell pool supplies or dying supplies.
2)Consistancies of the detergents you make may vary depending on the type of soap you use. You can use just about any soap too. If it gets your hands clean and gets rid of that greasy feeling, it will do the same for your clothes. Although, I will say some soaps will most likely work better than others depending on their ingredients.
3)Yes, you can use lye soap. Technically all soaps are lye soap. You can’t have soap without lye so don’t worry about that part. Besides, modern named lye soaps are much better that those made back in the day as measurements of lye versus fats are more exact and both are usually completely saponified in the end product.
4)The powdered version in most cases does not disolve well in cold water. Usually pre melting in hot water is required for a cold water wash.
5)Baking soda can be substituted, its just that washing soda is preferable due to its terrific grease cutting properties.
6)Borax is a natural disenfectant so it’s nice to have that in there.
7)Baking soda, washing soda, and borax are all water softeners. In other words they increase the effectiveness of any soap and/or detergent they are added to. On top of that, all three are great deoderizers.
8)Still worried about tough stains? Use bar soap as a pretreater. You’d be amazed at the things that an ordinary bar of soap can clean not only in your laundry but around your house as well.
9)Worried about residue? Add 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of white distilled vinegar to the rinse. No, your clothes will not come out smelling like vinegar. They will just smell really fresh and clean.
10)You can use the homemade detergent in any type of washing machine as there are virtually no suds. Believe it or not, suds you see in store bought products are really there for show to make you feel more confident in the product. Suds are not really what does the cleaning.
11)It is common for you to end up with seperation (gel on top and water on bottom). Just stir it and you’re good to go.
12)Yes it does work and it is fun to make and can be a great family project to do together as long as children are strictly surpervised. My kids love to see clothes that come out all nice and clean knowing they had a hand in it.
Sorry this is so long. Being the wife of a garbage man and two messy kids drives a mom to be frugal, inventive, and well informed. Hope this helps with any questions.
Just made my first batch today. I can’t wait until the morning to wash my first load. I have never been excited about washing clothes before today. Thanks!
Have you figured in the cost of heating all that water for however long it takes to make? Also, if it is made in the winter it is not a problem but, made in the summer you add extra heat load to your air conditioning unit which will add to the cost of your detergent. In addition, if you do not combine your trip to the store to buy the ingredients the there is added cost in fuel, auto maintenance, wear and tear, etc.
So it’s been 18 hours since I made my first bucket of laundry soap. It’s still so watery. I
That sounds like more fun than it should be…how does it work? DOes it get clothes clean? Do they smell clean for just as long?
The only thing stopping me doing this is the fact that I want to start taking all my laundry to a laundromat at once and throwing it all in one of those giant machines, and gelatinous slime doesn’t sound like the most portable of slimes.
Tkriger @ 10:41 am March 15th, 2007 (comment #1)