DIY Laundry Detergent

I'm almost out of laundry detergent, so I am finally getting to try out this recipe.  Sophie and Breyden helped me, each taking turns pouring stuff in.  Once it was done, I couldn't wait to give it a try, so I had some slippers that were really dirty...although, I don't know why!  They are only a month old and I put them on when I get out of the tub and then in the a.m. when I get out of bed, but they were so dirty looking you would swear they were years old!  It was embarrassing!  They bottoms had turned from pink to almost black!  And they were really stinky!  lol  Anyway, I put them in the washing machine on the hand wash cycle and they came out super clean!  Not to mention my whole laundry room smells amazing!  So it's really like a two for one...laundry detergent with built in air freshener!  

I like my clothes to really smell like laundry detergent, so I added some of those bounty unstoppables, but I really don't think I would have needed too.  The detergent smelled good enough on it's own!

Have you tried any recipes you like?

PS I didn't see it in the post so I mulled through the tons of comments to find an answer.  As with the dishwasher detergent you only have to use 1-2 tblsp. 

DIY Dishwasher Detergent

I have been dying to try all these DIY cleaners and detergents!  For one thing they are way cheaper than the stuff you buy in the store, and for another, I find that usually the things you make yourself work much better.  So when I finally ran out of dishwasher detergent yesterday, I whipped up a batch using this recipe.

It literally would have taken two minutes...except my borax was all clumped together and I don't own a sifter.  At first I was using a fork to break it up but then, I pulled out my strainer and used it like a cheese grater.  This went much quicker than the fork and didn't leave any little clumps like you can see in the pic above.  When my clumps got too small for me to hold I would leave them in the strainer and once I got a bunch of them, I just smooshed them through using the back of a spoon. Still the whole process took me maybe 15 minutes and that's including cleaning up a huge spill!  

The container I was originally going to store it in was the plastic container that those little detergent packs come in...well, I didn't realize it had a HUGE crack in the bottom!  I could not figure out why I was getting it all over the counter!  I knew I didn't see any flying out while I was smashing the borax   clumps!  Finally I realized what was going on, and my husband had a good laugh at my expense!  He did help me clean it up though, so I let him get away with it! lol

  I didn't actually read how much citric acid/lemon koolaid I would need so I only bought two packs...uh, yeah, you need a little more than that!  Guess next time I'll be actually reading the recipe!  Anyhow, I add in my two packs and figured I would just add some more, but I wondered how well it would clean without it.  I had no choice but to use it as is because as I said earlier, I was completely out of the store bought stuff.  I was so worried it wouldn't clean well then my hubby really would have given me a hard time...he's hugely skeptical of these types of diy things, but I was MAJORLY impressed!  I had a tupperware in there with chili stains and even without the citric acid, it looks brand new and was not greasy at all! 

She also mentions that the detergent doesn't work well if you don't use the lemi-shine...I had bought some but forgot to add it, and I didn't have any spots on my dishes.  I will use it in the future, but just wanted to mention that.  Anyways, I highly recommend her recipe!

It cost about $12 to make, and I got roughly 20 cups of detergent.  You only have to use 1 TBSP per load.  That's 320 loads which translates in about 3 cents per load!  Even if you are using the great value brand it's about 15 cents per load! That's $36 of savings!  Pretty darn good for 5 minutes of work!