Homemade Laundry Detergent

So with number 3 quickly approaching I've come to the sharp realization that I will not be able to just run up to the store to get something. I am going to have to be a bit more organized. So I thought my answer was my free subscription to Amazon Mom; however, with their changes I'm not sure I can justify the $79 a year for free shipping. So I've started thinking about ways to make my life a bit more simpler, a bit more green, and more cost effective. Less is more, right?

We do a lot of laundry around here, with a 2 year old and a 1 year old, plus a husband who works in the concrete industry....the laundry piles are intense. Not to mention washing cloth diapers every other day. Tide was my go-to-detergent, never doubted it's ability to clean. However; the price tag was getting to be a bit much. Roughly $25 for 120 loads, which lasted us about 10 weeks (we do on average 12 loads a week, that's not counting cloth diapers).

So I tried Target's brand and it seemed to work and the price was better at roughly $8 for 64 loads. I figured the real test would be when spring time rolled around and we had to deal with getting grass stains out. However, when the entire family came down with the stomach virus, it got the clothes clean, but left the puke smell in my babies clothes and blankets. This is not cool. So back to the drawing board to find a cheap detergent that I could easily have access to without paying for shipping.

My internet search lead me to making your own laundry detergent. I used the recipe from two different blogs, DIY Naturally and the The Eco-Friendly Family.

• 1 bar of shaved bar soap (Ivory, ZOTE, or Fels-Naptha)
• 1 cup of borax 
• 1 cup of washing soda 
• 1/2 cup oxiclean 

The ingredients, minus the oxiclean

Grated Ivory soap

1 bar of Ivory 

Everything mixed in!

Stored in a container, with a tablespoon. Later, when I made four more batches,
I  put it in  two large, clean coffee containers

 I used Ivory, it was easy to find, but could only buy it in the 10 pack for about $5. Using a cheese grater I easily shaved the bar of soap to nothing. Then mixed in the rest of the ingredients. When mixing it, I noticed it had the best smell, it smelled clean, crisp, and fresh! I put the detergent in a sealed container that I had. When doing laundry, it calls for 1-2 tablespoons (depending on the size of the load). This recipe makes 32-64 loads depending on how many tablespoons you use. DIY Naturally does the math and it works out to be roughly $2.98 for 32-64 loads. Now that is my kind of price!

I did the laundry and added a tablespoon to a medium sized load of my babies' clothes, they came out clean and smelling great! I was so excited about the end result that I immediately went and made a total of five batches!

UPDATE: I just ran out of the laundry detergent that I made! So those five bathes lasted me 7 months!!!!