Homemade Laundry Soap

We take laundry very seriously in our house.  First of all, my husband is required to do all his laundry separately from mine and the kids.  Those gym clothes need to be at least 40 feet away the rest of the family's clothes at all times.  If we could have a separate washer and dryer for him, we would.  We follow a very strict laundry ritual, and rarely stray from the formula.  We only use Tide Sport with Febreze, Downy Fabric Softener and our new favorite, Downy Unstoppables.  This formula works, but it is a very expensive formula.

When I mentioned I wanted to try making our own laundry soap, my husband was less than thrilled.  I'm not sure he is on board yet.  But there were a couple reasons I wanted to give it a try.

1.  It's less expensive and one batch lasts for months.  
2.  You only use 1-2 TBSP.

3.  It combines multiple products into one.

4.  It is supposed to make your clothes cleaner, fresher and look newer longer.

After scouring the web for the right recipe for our family, I think I have mix and matched the perfect formula.  Many call for 3 ingredients, but I wanted to add the Baking Soda and Oxiclean for stain removal.  The Downy Unstoppables is simply for scent boosting.  I just can't part with them, but this recipe incorporates them into soap and uses less.  If you like, you can skip this step, save the money and make it sensitive-skin friendly.  

4 lb 12 oz box of Borax


4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda


3 lb 7 oz box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda


2 bars of Zote Soap, finely grated


3 lb container of Oxi Clean


1 bottle Downy Unstoppables - Fresh Scent

All the ingredients, excluding Downy Unstoppables, are available at Walmart.  Most grocery stores have everything, but the Zote soap can be difficult.  I also found the Zote at Home Depot.  You can substitute Fels Naptha for Zote, but I liked the smell of Zote better.  And it's pink.  If you use Fels Naptha, use three bars.

Start by grating your Zote soap.  One of the biggest complaints I've read about making your own laundry soap is grating the soap because they have to do it with a hand grater.  I am lucky to own a Saladmaster Grater from the 70s and my 3 year old grated the soap in about 5 minutes.  I used the fine grating attachment.

(This is actually cheese, but it shows how the soap should look.)

If you don't happen to have a lovely vintage Saladmaster grater, you can use a food processor or old-school it and grate it by hand.

Next, mix all the ingredients in a large container.  I lined a laundry basket with a large trash bag.  They kids helped and took turns dumping the ingredients into the lined basket.  I stirred it with a large kitchen spoon, then closed the bag and mixed all the ingredients.  Make sure it is well distributed so you get equal amounts of the ingredients in each load.  It makes about 3 gallons for $32.24 and should last about 6-9 months.  I put the final mixture in several large plastic containers.

Use 1-2 TBSP per load.  Place the powder directly into the drum, both on a top or front load washing machine.  You don't need any other products with the wash.  

My first load was towels and they came out very clean and smelled great.  So far so good.  I am having a few other brave souls test the laundry soap and we will see what results they have with their laundry.  I'll post again after the results from my little group of product testers, including my harshest critic with the most challenging laundry, my husband.

Happy Washing!