How to Make Non-Toxic Detergent

Is making your own non-toxic detergent worth it? Yes! I have spent much of my married life over thinking about the cleaning products I use in my home and if they are harmful to my family. With this tutorial on making your own detergent you can feel confident about washing your whole family’s wardrobe.

Since I am in the phase of life of having little children I prefer to make and use gentle and non-toxic cleaning products around my babies. I have felt so confident ever since I’ve started to make my own laundry detergent!

My husband is so picky about the way our laundry feels and smells. He says that he is extremely happy with our clothes, towels, and sheets. The are soft, fluffy, and not overpowering in their scent.

When I do start to run out of laundry detergent, which isn’t very often, I feel no stress about simply making some more. It is straight forward and I already own everything to make it.

How Cost Effective Is It To Make Your Own Non-Toxic Detergent?

The free and gentle Tide pods that I used to buy at Costco were $35 for 152 loads of laundry. While using simple ingredients to create my own laundry detergent, I spend the same amount of money for about 500 loads of laundry!

I even run 1-2 loads a day since this laundry detergent is so cost effective. I feel no guilt about doing as many towel loads as possible.

What Are The Advantages To Making Your Own Laundry Detergent?

Bulk Savings– A load of laundry will cost you 10 cents or less per load while you spend much more per load with detergent from the store.

Time Saving– That’s right, it actually saves you time! You can make big batches of this detergent in one go and have detergent for months before needing to make more. I like that much better than running out of Tide and using that as an excuse to go to the grocery store.

Simple– You get to know exactly which ingredients are being used to wash your clothes. This will free your brain and give you peace-of-mind which is priceless. This will become a simple addition in your home and to your to-do list!

Ingredients– Everything that you need is easy to come by on amazon or a local hardware store.

What You Will Need:

Filtered Water– This can be water out of a filtration system in your home or gallons of water that you purchase in those plastic jugs at the store. (You will need filtered water for any homemade cleaning products that you make.

Washing Soda– This is made from plant ashes, sodium chloride, or lime stone and is a natural cleaning agent.

Borax– Borax is a naturally occurring mineral that is found outside of dried lakes or hot springs. It contains large amounts of sodium which is a cleaning agent and naturally aids in cleaning your clothes!

Fels-Naphtha Soap Bar– or any other non-toxic soap bar works great. When I am at my local natural foods store I like to smell different soap bars and take them home for my detergent. I also support local small businesses and buy their soap bars for this recipe!

Essential oils– These are optional if you are using a yummy scented soap bar, then you will not need the scent from the essential oils. I do prefer using lemon, lavender, lime, or wild orange when using essential oils for laundry detergent. Brands I use of essential oils are Doterra, Young Living, or Plant Therapy.

Boiling pot

Cheese grater– I use a cheese grater to shred my soap bar but truthfully, I always have the thought that I should try and shred them in my food processor! Either works but you need a way to shred the soap bar.

Five Gallon Bucket

Where Do I Start?

This step is always the most daunting for me before I try something new. I will walk you through what I did to obtain everything I needed to make detergent.

• Buy Some essential oils (or make sure you have some on hand).
• Find a five gallon bucket to mix everything in.
• Go onto amazon and buy borax, washing soda, and a soap bar.
• Get some filtered water from the store while you wait for these ingredients to show up to your house.

It is great to have essential oils in your home, not only for natural remedies for you and your family, but also for creating your own cleaning products. You can make hand soap, body gel, and even an all-purpose cleaner if you have essential oils.

The great thing about these ingredients is once you have them, the hard part is done! They all go a long way and they are easy to replace when you run out.

Once you have everything you need, you can begin making your laundry detergent!

How To Make Your Non-Toxic Detergent:

1. Measure out the borax and washing soda and put into your five gallon bucket.
2. Shred the soap bar(s).
3. In a pot, melt the soap bar with a little bit of the filtered water that you are going to use.
4. Stir the soap and water until the shreds are mostly melted.
5. Pour the remaining water into the five gallon bucket, and then pour the soap and water mixture into the bucket, while scraping the sides of the pot.
6. Mix all of these ingredients.
7. If you are choosing to use essential oils, drop 30 total drops into the mixture and stir well again. (You can mix and match essential oils scents),
8. Let the mixture sit over night or for about 8 hours.
9. Use 1/2 cup amounts for a normal sized load of laundry.

Tips For Making Detergent

• Measure out the powders and have them prepared in the bucket before you shred and melt the soap. Right before pouring the soap in, pour in the water. This will cause for better mixing.
• Melt your soap bar on a low heat. If it is too hot the soap that is melted will eventually begin to clump up once more.
• Find a yummy smelling soap bar! any 5 oz. non-toxic soap bar will work for this detergent.
• The washing soda will cause the mixture to congeal so it is important to let the mixture set up over night so that you have a thick mixture to use for your laundry.