Natural Cleaning: Laundry Detergent

The following is the laundry detergent recipe we've been using the last few months. So far, I don't have any complaints about it - my laundry is as clean and fresh as when I was using Tide ... maybe it doesn't smell as scent-y but I'm not sure that that's necessarily a bad thing.

The fact that I'm saving quite a bit of money making my own detergent is definitely a winner though.

Here's the recipe I use:

2 bars of soap grated (Dr. Bronner's, Zote or Fels Naptha)
1 1/2 cups borax
1 1/2 cups washing soda
1 1/2 cups baking soda

1. Grate your soap by hand, using the smallest grate on your grater. Or use your food processor.

2. Mix all the ingredients together.

3. Use 1/8th cup (a coffee scooper) for one laundry load.

Although I no longer use commercial laundry detergents, I still occasionally use Oxy Clean for my whites and definitely for my stains. And every now and then I'll use some laundry softener.

Note: There's another simpler detergent recipe floating out there that only has three ingredients. I may try this recipe in the future:

1 bar soap - grated, 1 cup borax, 1 cup washing soda

It's worth a try!