Homemade Laundry Detergent

I love this detergent! It works great, my clothes come out as clean as with regular detergent and they smell so clean!!! I wasn't a fan of powdered laundry detergents but this one is fantastic!

Homemade Powdered Laundry Detergent

1 Ivory, Fels-Naptha, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zote soap bar
1  Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (cannot substitute baking soda)
½  Cup Borax

½ cup Calgon water softener

Break soap* into pieces and process in a food processor until powdered. Mix all ingredients. For light load, use 1 Tablespoon. For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 Tablespoons.

Yields: 3 Cups detergent. (Approx. 40 loads)

 Recipe cost approx. $2-3 per batch.

*I recommend leaving the soap out a day or two to dry out because it is easier to process in a food processor dry!

Tip: Use vinegar as the fabric softener.

My grocery list:

10 bars of Ivory soap: $3.31

1 box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda: $5.99

1 box Borax: $4.99

1 box Calgon water softener: $6.99

I made 240 loads worth of detergent and I used:

6 bars of Ivory - $1.99

1 box of washing powder: $5.99

About ½ the box or borax: $2.50

3/4 the box of Calgon: $5.24

Totaling to: $15.72 which is $2.62 per batch, that’s less than 10 cents per load! 

Personal Review:
For my birthday, we went to IHOP and my kids enjoyed their 'The Lorax'  breakfasts. Of course we and planned to be out most of the day and my daughter had to order the messiest food! She ordered the blueberry cake cone and of course got blueberries on her dress! We were able to get it kind of out and decided to just go about our day with her wearing the dirty dress, since our day was packed and she'd probably get it dirty later anyway.

After we got home, before I had her change, she did get it dirtier, she split red koolaid on it! At his point I was hoping it wasn't permanently stained! I threw it in the laundry using this detergent and hoped for the best. Well, it came out perfectly clean, no hint of the stain! Now I wish I snapped a before picture, but here's the after! I think this works better that other detergents I've used (All, Tide, Gain, Method, store brands).