You never knew it was this easy to make laundry soap

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#Do It Yourself#cleaning products#eco-conscious#laundry

This post originally appeared on Hipster Housewife.

So one day after we moved this fall, my husband sent me an email. It contained a link to a Lifehacker video about how easy it is to make laundry soap and its subject was “LET”S DO THIS!!!!!”. I watched it and was immediately convinced that we had to try making our own laundry detergent. I am here to tell you that it was a huge success and you should try it, too.

But Cat! Why would anyone want to make laundry soap? We can buy it at any store.

Friends, the benefits to making your own laundry soap are many:

  1. It’s super cheap.
  2. It’s phosphate free.
  3. You can control the scent of your detergent.
  4. You can feel awesome and self-reliant when you make it.

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Part one: INGREDIENTS

You only need three things for this product: Fels-Naptha Soap, Washing Powder and Borax. 

I did have a bit of trouble finding these, even though they’re super basic cleaning materials. With more patience I’m sure I’ll have zero problem getting a local hardware store to order the washing soda and Naptha in.

I ordered the Fels-Naptha soap on Amazon, and ended up ordering the washing soda as well. Borax was easier to find. The soap and washing powder were quite a bit more expensive online than they should have been. Still, I spent a total of $16 on enough supplies to make soap for less than five cents an ounce. That’s about half of the best price on Amazon.

Two: MAKING SOAP

THIS WAS SO EASY. Do you see those capital letters? 

I used a slightly different recipe — same ingredients, different proportions. This recipe makes about 2.5 gallons of soap, not the 5 from the recipe in the video. 

First, grate up a third of the Naptha bar. Dissolve in 6 cups hot water on the stove. When dissolved, add 1/2 cup each of Borax and washing soda. 

Add the soap mixture to 26 cups of hot water in a five gallon bucket. Stir.  

Let the mixture gel for a day and you’ve got about 2.5 gallons of soap. 

I stored the fresh soap in three clean two liter bottles, and we use about a half cup per load.

EXPERIMENT CONCLUSION
Really, all my concerns were alleviated once I tried out the soap:

  • I was unhappy that I’d ordered a scented Fels-Naptha. You can definitely smell the soap, and I don’t like perfumey scents — but it’s so mild that you can’t smell it on the clean laundry. A friend recommended that I try adding a tea tree oil in the next batch — and I think I will! What’s better than my own custom laundry scent?
  • Some recipes suggested that homemade laundry soap isn’t good for stains. Now, we’re not a super stained household, but I haven’t noticed a problem.

The soap goes a looooong way, and we’re definitely saving money over other laundry detergents — especially unscented ones, which are usually marked up. But the savings and eco-happiness are dwarfed by the fact that every single time I do laundry I’m like, “DAMN, girl! You made this!”

About the Author: Cat Rocketship

I was the Managing Editor of Offbeat Home for a year and a half. I have a rich Internet life and also a pretty good real life. Hobbies include D&D, Twitter, and working on making our household more self-reliant. I also draw things.

Comments on You never knew it was this easy to make laundry soap

  1. Is this good for high-efficiency washers? Or is there a recipe for those types also?

    Off to googleland. Though, we won’t eliminate all detergent purchaes until my Grease Monkey finds himself promoted to a desk.

  2. Sounds fantastic, well done! You could try mixing some essentials oils to get exactly what you’d like- a little bergamot and lavender would be lovely for me. As a UK-based reader, do you have any ideas for something we could do?

  3. I made my first batch of homemade detergent with fels-naptha and ended up getting a rash, so I replaced that soap with Dr. Bonners peppermint. When that runs out I’ll move onto my homemade cold processed soap. I’ve pretreated stains with it pretty successfully. I find that my high efficiency washer doesn’t clean as well, but this soap works just the same as commercial stuff.

    • I just read that Fels Naptha uses a chemical called “Stoddard solvent” which is a type of paint thinner, and is classified as an “irritant” by most governments. Chronic exposure to it can lead to nervous system problems. Its also not very green for a detergent – its moderately toxic to aquatic organisms.

      Zote may be safer, and “beauty” bars are also ok – like Zest, Ivory, or any other bar of soap. The scents also stay on your laundry, which some people associate with clean laundry.

      I think I’ll be experimenting with this.

    • My wife and I have mad sensitive skin, so thank you for the warning! I think we’ll try it out with something similarly simple (Dr. Bronner’s isn’t readily available in Australia) once we run out of our current dye/fragrance free detergent.

    • Let me know how it goes with the cold process soap. I do hot process handmade, organic soap and was thinking I could use that. Just wondering if it will make the laundry oily, since part of the process is melting the soap back down.

  4. Weird question…did you use the same grater for the soap as you do for grating food?

    I’m not so much worried about contamination; it’s soap, I expect it washes out just fine. But I’m wondering about wear and tear. Is the soap hard on the grater or is it about the same as any hard cheese or root vegetable would be? Thanks!

  7. a bit of baking soda added in will help to whiten and eliminate stains. Also, a 1/2 cup of white vinegar in the rinse cycle and no dryer sheets are needed.

  8. Oh! This is so exciting! Maybe I’m nerdy, forgive me. But I’m sensitive almost everything in the last two years – everything makes me itch. Itch a lot. But this – I know exactly what’s in it! And it’s cheap! And I could make my laundry smell like lavender! I bet the hubbs will be into this too! Thank you!! (more exclamation points!!!!!)

    • I’m the same way, and I’ve found a few homemade things that work wonders.

      Homemade deodorant is pretty fantastic and I’ve found it’s a good solution to the fact that 1. I sweat a LOT, and 2. I have sensitive skin so lots of deodorants just cause underarm rashes.

      • Homemade deodorant? Oh. My. Word. That sounds *fantastic*. My underarms are always rashy, but I sweat a lot too, and don’t want to be stinky.

        • I use coconut oil on its own for deodorant. It has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. I don’t sweat a lot though, so it might not work for you if you do. But it will definitely help with the rash! It’s worth trying out. And if it doesn’t work you can use the coconut oil for a million other things, including for not limited to: as a moisterizer, as lube, as cooking oil.

          • also good for when you have a cough – it coats and soothes your throat. I give it to my kids with a little honey, they love it!

          • Coconut oil rocks! I use it as part of a mixture to make deodorant, moisturiser and it has successfully treated the odd yeast infection

      • Oooooh, what’s your recipe? I am in the same boat – I sweat A LOT, and commercial deodorants give me awful rashes. I’ve found chemical-free deodorants that avoid the rash problem (I use Coconut, by LUSH) but none that really work as an antiperspirant.

        • @Jenna Rose – the antiperspirant in commercial deodorants is aluminum – the same thing that is supposed to make commercial deodorant/antiperspirants really bad for you. Unfortunately, it is also the only thing I think that actually works as an antiperspirant. Which is why all “natural” and homemade deodorants do just that – deodorize and nothing else.

          If anyone knows of any non-aluminum antiperspirant that actually works, please feel free to correct me as I’ve never found one!

    • I’ve heard that it isn’t very gentle on cloth diapers, but I don’t know first hand. Maybe try it on some diaps you don’t love first?

      • I make my own laundry soap this way (although i use an organic olive oil based soap which works just as well–im allergic to fragrances, and a couple other things used in soap) I cloth diaper, and this detergent works great for stains, but seems to dry out the diapers a bit so i add a 1/2 cup vinegar to my diaper load and that works much better.

    • My mother washes cloth diapers with the washing soda only. She says this is the best way to remove the smell. Also, she dries them outside in the sun in the summertime to further disinfect them.

      • YES. I’m stoked to put up a clothesline outside this summer — way better for keeping whites white than bleach, which can turn them yellow.

  10. I have been making my own laundry soap for over a year! Its amazing how many people think its the oddest thing they have ever heard of! I’ve even had people offer to buy me “real” soap!
    I use Lush soap in my recipe and it smells amazing!

    • I was wondering about making this with LUSH soap… I have really dry, sensitive skin, and switched over completely to LUSH products about 5 years ago (like, ‘I carry my own travel soap in my purse to use in restrooms’ completely). The change was amazing – I went from being covered, neck to ankles, in regular breakouts of dry eczema-like rashes (which 10 childhood years of dermatologist visits failed to heal or identify) to having an average of one rash (or less!) per year, generally stress triggered.

      I’ve been playing around with laundry soap recipes, but I’d need to make one that was completely chemical and irritant free… what else is in your recipe besides the soap? (If you don’t mind sharing!) Also, do you still end up saving money even with using such expensive soap? I wouldn’t mind even spending the same amount I currently spend on detergent…. but it would be hard to spend more.

  11. We make our own soap and I LOVE it! You forgot to mention that when you tell people you make your own soap they look at you like you’re a badass! It’s soooo much cheaper than I can get it with coupons, even, and I like the lemony smell from the Fels Naptha, but you can use Castile.

  12. It looks like my local Wegmans carries everything I need, and in the same aisle, natch, so I know what I’m doing this weekend! I’ve been thinking about it for awhile, and I’m almost out of whatever it is that I’ve been using, so this is perfect timing!

  13. My family and I have been making homemade laundry soap for quite a few years now and a trick we have is to buy a really small bottle of laundry detergent that we like the scent of and add that to the batch. Another handy thing (and awesome wedding gift that I got) is a gift set of a large canning pot and 8 bars of soap and a couple boxes of washing soda. I usually make all the detergent (about 18 gallons) for me and my mom once every 6 months or so. I use my giant canning pot and a 20 gallon storage tub for the overnight jelling its awesome! And also another handy tip is that the fels naptha bar itself is a bad ass stain remover.
    I think next time I make it I’m gonna try ivory soap because I LOVE the smell of it!

  14. Fels-Naptha is hands-down the best stain remover. We use it in the theatre to get stage make-up/mysterious gunk off of shirt collars and other clothing pieces!

  16. I’ve done all my cloth diapers with soap nuts with great success. FYI Borax is an illegal substance in the EU (sigh). Soap nuts definitely work if your water is soft, and they’re OK if the water is hard. You can generally find them in your local Fairtrade shop, and our €9 bag lasts us 6 months of laundry (including diapers).

    • Interesting. I wonder why the EU has banned it?

      *heads off to Wiki*

      A reassessment of boric acid/borax by the United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Pesticide Programs found potential developmental toxicity (especially effects on the testes).[17] Boric acid solutions used as an eye wash or on abraded skin are known to be particularly toxic to infants, especially after repeated use, because of the slow elimination rate.[18] At a recent European Diagnostics Manufacturing Association (EDMA) meeting, several new additions to the Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC) candidate list in relation to the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals Regulations 2007 (REACH) were discussed. The registration and review completed as part of REACH has changed the classification of Sodium Tetraborate CAS 1303-96-4 to toxic for reproduction.[19]

      Good to know.

  17. I use this! Sometime year before last my mater was at my sister-in-law’s house, and there was a whole group of women making huuuuge amounts of this laundry soap. I love it, and plan to use it when the creature and I finally have our own place, though I do make it now. 🙂

  18. I was just reading about this for cloth diapers and the general consensus is that it would be ok if you left out the fels-naptha (or other soap) the wash powder and borax are ok far as I’ve seen.

  19. Anyone ever used Marseilles or olive oil soaps for this? Y’know, the giant green french cubes? Just curious…

    I should make my own. I buy the HE unscented kind, but it’s kinda pricey. Clearly I should just bite the bullet and make my own! Then I could scent it with peppermint or something yummy – I hate that “laundry” smell. Gives me a headache.

    • I have used lush’s karma soap and alkmaar soap so far. They both worked great. Karma is a stronger more musky scent. with lush you could use any of the soaps that don’t contain chunks… Ie I would not advise porridge soap. If you haven’t used lush before just go with a scent description that sounds like something you like!

  22. I do this too, and I save tons of money! The website where I got the recipe said the recipe amounts to about 1 cent per load. I use a dove bar of soap though, the cheapest I can find without scents or other additives.

  24. Love the article, totally down for some DIY tea tree oil soap!

    Is it safe to use washing soda and borax in a pot you use for cooking though? Seems like you’d want to have a separate pot that was strictly for soap. I’m not sure if it’s an issue or not!

  25. I make a powdered version of this soap, which works fine when washing in hot water. When I wash in cold water, I put 1 T of soap in a jar and dissolve it in boiling water to make a liquid. I don’t have a lot of room for storing large amounts of liquid soap in my apartment so this is ideal for me.

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