Comments on: Video: How to Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

By: Dale

Dale — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:55:18 +0000

Thank you for taking the time to produce the video and posting it. I’m going to try this, it seems very logical and Borax has been used for about a billion years (I remember the black and white TV commercials). Got any ideas for a home made fabric softener??? Dale in Massachusetts

By: Deborah

Deborah — Sun, 23 May 2010 08:18:03 +0000

I saw this recipe a few weeks ago and as soon as I could afford to go to town to buy my supplies I made the recipe. It made about 2.5 gallons and I put them into glass gallon jugs. This is NOW the only laundry soap I use. I LOVE IT. You have to shake it before using it becuase it’s a runny jello substance. Thanks for the great recipe. I used Ivory Bar Soap. Deborah in California

By: Grant

Grant — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:02:32 +0000

Trent,
Great video – thanks for the tutorial! Have you noticed if this recipe causes any more / less fading in your clothes? With three children under the age of 5 at home myself, I try to get the most miles out of clothes that I can.

By: Barb

Barb — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:30:20 +0000

Help , I only have dial up service. Cannot get the video to play. Any suggestions

By: mike

mike — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:08:54 +0000

hey tentaculistic comment 24—
what size old detergent jug did you use?
how much liquid dish det did you use?
how much washing soda did you use?
how much borax did you use?
how much liquid dish det to use to replace the 1 bar
of soap in the original receipe?

please-if anyone has any variations of the he liquid
detergent please post quantities used:half cup,cup,
ect,ect. thanks

By: mike

mike — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:53:53 +0000

yeah,how much liquid dish detergent do you use???

has anyone used this method for he front loaders and what were the resultS???????

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:15:01 +0000

Great article. I am just ready to try this. To the person who made theirs with liquid dish soap, how much did you use to replace the bar of soap?

By: Caroline

Caroline — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:08:53 +0000

Those non-detergent comments are great!

By: SteveJ

SteveJ — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:54:47 +0000

My wife has allergies and so our main detergent is the All clear stuff. With this recipe, is the only allergen the soap used? I know she’ll be resistant to this idea (I barely survived the argument for using cheap bleach in the pool rather than chlorine tabs – same thing chemically of course). I’ve heard of people having borax allergies, is that stuff normally in laundry detergent as well? The ingredients on the laundry bottle are near worthless for comparison: Cleaning Agents, Buffering Agent, Stabilizer, Brightening Agents. If All made food I’m sure it would contain Food Agents and Preservative Agents.

Oh and if you can’t find washing soda, look for PH up in a pool store or pool chemical section (my walmart has a couple aisles right now). If you find something that’s 100% sodium carbonate, you’ve found the stuff. It’s often called Soda ash as well. I suppose you could bake baking soda to create washing soda (heating sodium bicarbonate would drive off water and carbon dioxide, leaving sodium carbonate), but that’s probably a little too far out there.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:19:29 +0000

Your video directions made my latest batch better than my first attempt, and a lot less work.

One big concern that I think should always be mentioned is that young children can drown in just a little bit of liquid, and buckets are now considered hazardous. These buckets shouldn’t be near kids. I pour my liquid detergent into old laundry detergent bottles, which is handier and also safer for kids.

To save additional money, I grate soap scraps rather than use a new bar.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:18:27 +0000

Well, my batch of detergent turned out like Trent’s video, slimy and jello-y. Really fun!

Next time I won’t use Ivory, that soap stinks bad… I was thinking of Dove but bought Ivory by mistake.

This weekend we’ll see how the detergent pans out with some loads of washing!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:28:38 +0000

Well, after seeing the video in the article, I went out and bought some supplies to try this myself at home.

I live in Canada, so for my first batch I didn’t shop around to find the cheapest prices on the ingredients. I just bought it.

I bought 2 3-packs of Ivory for $1.99 each, a 3 KG box of A&H Washing Soda for $6.69 and a 2 KG box of No-Name Borax for $4.99 I think.

A sub-total of $15.66 plus 10% taxes (5% GST + 5% PST) got me to a total of $17.23. If I can get 6 batches of 52 loads out of these supplies.

$17.23 divided by 312 loads = 5.5 cents per load.

I can’t wait to make a batch tonight and see how it works!

By: Sunshine

Sunshine — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:17:59 +0000

Goodness, Terry, there are nicer ways to say things like that, particularly if you didn’t mean it in the harsh way you stated it.

Good luck, Trent, with the continued weight loss.

By: Susan

Susan — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:27:57 +0000

Hi!
My mom tried a similar recipe where they used a whole bar of Fels naptha and diluted it to make 10 gallons. I use 1/2C in my HE and it works great, smells nice and so far no hives like I get from Dreft!!

So my advice to Trent is maybe try increasing your water and reducing the amount of detergent and see how much more you save!!

TTFN–Susan

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:21:18 +0000

Have you ever thought of just using bicarb soda with vinegar in the rinse cycle. Easy and it works. Also you can get bicarb in produce stores because it’s used to stop cattle from getting bloat. It’s much coarser than cooking bicarb, but you can get it in 25kg bags :)

By: Abbie

Abbie — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:07:43 +0000

Just wanted to add that I have a Whirlpool sport HE and I’ve been making my own soap. My recipe uses borax, washing soda, and Fels Naptha. It works great and hasn’t caused any problem for my machine.

By: Dee Wilcox

Dee Wilcox — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:05:42 +0000

Congrats on your TV spots! I just made a batch of this the other night. :)

Small anecdote – I was making conversation with the wife of one of my husband’s co-workers the other night when she said, “What would you say if I told you I had a recipe to make your own laundry detergent?” And I said, “I do that!!!” Made me feel like we’re part of a secret fraternity of the frugally minded. :)

By: Brandi

Brandi — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:41:02 +0000

This may be a silly question, but are the utensils you use to make detergent (pots, measuring implements, grater) used solely for this purpose, or can you still use them for cooking?

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:26:09 +0000

You are right, you do have really big hands! Haha nice video.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:58:12 +0000

I just have to say… you and your wife are both totally off-base with regards to apples. I’d say Granny Smith are best left to pies, and Red Not-At-All-Delicious are not fit for human consumption. Next time you’re at the farmer’s market, try a sample of Braeburn and then never go back.