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Friday, May 11, 2012

How to Make Your Own Powder Laundry Detergent ( w/ recipe )

I delved into more homemade laundry detergents recipes, and narrowed it down to powders. The liquid recipes make over 2 gallons, and I really didn't wanna fool with cooking the bars of soap. The liquid recipes are a longer process of letting the liquid cool, stirring the ingredients into it, and finally adding two gallons of water. I'd rather use my cookware for dinner. This is the recipe ( HE compatible too ) that I decided to make:

1 Cup Borax ( 11 Cups per box )
1 Cup Super Washing Soda ( 7 Cups per box )
1 Cup Fels-Naptha ( 2 Cups grated  per bar )

This seemed rather straight forward and easy to prepare. The Borax Box has 11 cups. The Super Washing Soda box has 7 cups. The 2 bars of Fels-Naptha once grated made 4 cups...so I grated 2 bars of Ivory bar soap (  acceptable substitution from the research  ) which made 3 cups. Some this was gonna be a super batch of 21 cups.

 
Cost Analysis:

2 Fels-Naptha @.97 each = $1.94
1 Box Borax.....................= $3.38 (with 4 cups left over) final recipe cost is $2.15
1 Bx Super Washing Soda= $3.24
2 Bars Ivory @ . 33 each = $0.66
                                        =======
Total                                    $7.99

This makes a total of 21 cups and the measurement for each load is 2 TB (Tablespoon). 
There are 16 TB in a cup...so there are 336 TB in this batch.
336 Tb / 2 TB equals 118 loads this batch.
$7.99 / 118 loads equals  $.0677 per load.

Time to prepare took less than 15 minutes.

Most of the major brands run around 20 cents per load to wash your clothes. This is close to a 66% savings. I'll post updates with before and after shots! This ought to be fun with the kids.

3 comments:

  1. Tried it and have done four loads of laundry so far. Seems to work just as well as our usual liquid detergent (Sams Club brand liquid)!

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  2. Thanks for this recipe! Looks great. What do you store it in, if I may ask?
    Can't wait until we are finally settled and I get to try it.

    What do you use, if anything, for fabric softener? For a couple months now I've been using distilled white vinegar. Wish I had tried it sooner.

    Found you from... well, actually, I'm not sure, haha; but I think I'd like to follow along if you don't mind.
    Have a great day!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks LindaG, I keep it in an old whipped margarine container right now, but will move it to a new paint can that I'll purchase at Home Depot/Lowes. I use an old liquid laundry detergent cap as a measure ( 2 TB ) or about half. ModernDayredneck is where you found me. Keep Right On - K

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