Homemade Laundry Detergent

A little bit of background about why I started making my own detergent. My husband is in the military, which means I wash uniforms. Military uniforms can only be washed in certain detergents, which tend to be the more expensive ones. Cheaper detergents use optical brighteners to make clothes look bright and clean without using as much of the more expensive soaps. The problem is that optical brighteners make clothes glow under black lights and night vision. Since it's a bad plan for military uniforms to glow in night vision, we are careful about what detergents we use. I hate spending more when I don't have to, so I started looking into making my detergent. I've been using it for a little less than a year and my clothes are clean and smell good, so it seems to me that it works. This recipe is based off of other recipes that I found through research along with experimenting to get a combination that works for me.

Ingredients:
1 bar Fels-Naptha soap
1 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
(All of these things can be found on the laundry aisle in the grocery store)

Fels Naptha is a bar soap that is used to treat stains. The soap needs to be grated which can be done with a hand grater or a food processor.
Washing Soda and Borax are powders that are sometimes added to loads of laundry to produce cleaner clothes.

Grate the Fels Naptha and add it to 4 cups of hot water. Cook over medium to low heat until the soap is completely melted. Stir regularly to make sure it is melting evenly.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket halfway with hot water. Then add the melted soap, 1 cup of washing soda and 1/2 cup of borax. Stir until it is completely dissolved. Fill the bucket the rest of the way with water then stir, cover and let sit 8-12 hours.

Once you've let it set, it should be a loose gel. It will not be as thick as store bought detergent. Stir and then fill the containers you want your detergent in. You can use empty laundry detergent containers if you have them. I also use empty and rinsed gallon jugs. Fill the container halfway with detergent and the rest of the way with hot water.

The recipe produces 10 gallons of detergent. Personally, I like the smell of the laundry soap, but if you would prefer a different scent you can add 5 or 6 drops of essential oil per 1 gallon container. The detergent will separate as it sits, so you will need to shake it before each use.

Use 5/8 cup of detergent for a top loader and 1/4 cup of detergent for a front loader. (Hint: I use an old glass jar with a line drawn on it to designate 1/4 cup and 5/8 cup. You could also draw a line on the detergent bottle lid if the lid is large enough).

If you have really tough stains that don't seem to be coming out, you can add some oxi powdered cleaner to help boost, but I have not had a stain that I couldn't get out with just the regular detergent. If you have very hard or very soft water, the recipe may need to be altered for the water. We have hard water and this recipe works for us.

Cost break down (cost at my local grocery store):
1 bar Fels-Naptha $0.97
1 box Washing Soda $3.15
1 box Borax $3.36

1 bar of soap per recipe
7 recipes of washing soda per box .45
19 recipes of borax per box .18

If my math is correct, the cost per recipe is about $1.60, meaning $1.60 for 10 gallons of detergent. Or $0.16 for a gallon of detergent.

I hope this is useful for you and that my experimentation benefits you!