Laundry Detergent

If you are like me, you are tired of paying a ridiculous amount of money on laundry detergent. I have a couple friends who have made their own detergent in the past, but I didn't think I could use it in my HE washer. Then my Aunt Judith straightened that out.

The only difference between conventional laundry detergent and HE (high efficiency) is the suds. No suds for HE. Well it turns out that in ingredients in homemade detergent don't make suds so I am good to use it! Which is GREAT news considering it costs $10-15 for a 40 load bottle of HE detergent. There is cheaper stuff, but really its no good.

So here's the recipe:

1 cup of Borax, 1 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, 3 bars of Ivory soap. The cost for these ingredients is about $6. If my math is up to par you can get about 6 batches out of one box plus the additional bars of Ivory which run about $1/3. So for a grand total of maybe $12 you can get a huge stinking lot of laundry detergent!

You'll need a container to store it in (I chose a cookie jar since I had one that doesn't get used), a micro-plane (or fine grater) and a sifter (optional). Grate your ivory soap (its a nice workout), add your Borax and Washing Soda, then sift.

Your finished product will look like this. Now add 2 Tablespoons per load of laundry. If you are doing whites that need a little extra whitening, skip the bleach. Instead try adding an additional 1T of Borax to your load.

Tune in next week when we learn how to make our own dryer sheets. Get ready to save some $$.

UPDATE: Visit this website and download your .35 coupon, then get that tripled at Kroger for even more savings.