On November 6, 2011 we made our first laundry detergent which worked out really well for us. We made a second batch playing the measurements, and still, it was great. Then we decided to venture into other recipes and soaps. Big mistake! Wow was our detergent a flop. Wanna know which soap we used? Ivory. Yuck, yuck and a triple yuck. I could never tolerate the smell or feel of Ivory soap to begin with, so when Dom brought home the bars, I thought I’d be open minded about it and indulge that man in my life who makes my life so amazingly happy. He was beaming and glowing as if with child as he opened that first bar of Ivory soap. He grated it with pride, carefully added all the ingredients and did the first load. Can you say “ewwww” with me?
It wasn’t Dom’s fault, lets be clear about that. It was the Ivory. It doesn’t dissolve like Kiss My Face brand soap. The Ivory shavings just float on top of the water, barely get anything at all clean and the smell? Gross! I couldn’t wait till we were done with that batch so we could make our original detergent. As the detergent came to an end, we still had a few bars of Ivory as well as about five bars of Fels-Naptha soap. We’ve changed our minds on trying Fels-Naptha after hearing that it was a petroleum based soap. We’ll be returning it back to the store. Besides, that soap smells horrible! Scents can be very strong to my nose, or very weak. But there is nothing worse than having a laundry detergent that both lacks a nice scent AND can’t clean the laundry at all.
The other night Dom brought home Kiss My Face Olive Oil Lavender soap and I was so happy. I decided to tweak the recipe a bit from Dom’s original recipe. Why? Because I wanted more scent. I love how clean everything gets, but the scent is so faint its almost non-existent and if I need to be reminded of the Ivory debacle I’m not going to be happy.
I decided to change the amount of soap I used in this version, which I humorously call “Kiss My Ass” Laundry detergent! Why? Because Ivory soap can kiss it!
[gmc_recipe 3985]
I opperate a wash and fold service from my home and have been considering using homemade detergent in place of store bought. My only fear is that it won’t work well on stains. In your experience has it been able to effectively remove stains? I’ve used homemade fabric softener made with hair conditioner and really liked the results so I’m hoping to be able to do the same with detergent.
Great post!
Hi Danielle,
I would say to experiment a bit with your own laundry to see how well it gets stains out for you. Our clothes come out smelling fresh and bright. Dish towels and rags of course do not, so we always use some bleach once a week to treat them, but as for regular clothing, yes, it gets the stains out for us. One thing you won’t need to use is fabric softener, as the borax will do the job to soften the clothing. I LOVE how soft and fluffy our clothing comes out. We have well water without a water softener and still everything is soft and fluffy. Try it out and tell me what you think! It costs us on average .25 cents per day to do laundry. If you have business at home it could definitely help with overhead costs.
I’ve been using your recipe for laundry soap for a couple of months now and I love it! I just finished making my second batch and can’t wait to do laundry.
Thanks for sharing this.
You’re welcome! We’ve been experimenting with other kinds of homemade laundry detergent and we’ve tweaked a new one that is also amazing. Its not a powder, but a gel.
I’ll share that one too soon. š
Hello! I found your laundry detergent recipe on Pinterest and I LOVE it! It’s the best laundry detergent I’ve ever used and so cheap. I’ve been using it for over 8 months now and I like that it’s all natural so I can wash my baby girls clothes with it as well. I have a question. Do you know if this detergent is ok with High Efficiency washers? I’m asking on behalf of my mother in law. Thank you so much!
Hi Heather,
I’m glad you’re enjoying the recipe! I’m not sure how it would work in a high efficiency washer, unfortunately we don’t have one.
Hi Heather,
I have a high efficiency washer and have used this laundry detergent. It works just fine.