DIY Laundry detergent is not a new thing. The idea has been around for a long time and there are a ton of different takes on the same few recipes. It may come as a surprise to some of you that despite the fact that I homemake many of my beauty products and cleaning products, I’ve never made homemade laundry detergent. I’ve wanted to, because making your own detergent is cheaper, and it eliminates a lot of icky chemicals from your home. I never tried it until now and I couldn’t be happier with the results!

This recipe doesn’t call for borax like most homemade laundry detergents do. I’ve heard conflicting information about how borax affects sensitive skin, so I left it out. It cleans just as well without it. It also doesn’t call for anything like Purex crystals. This laundry detergent has exactly three ingredients: baking soda, washing soda, and grated Castille soap.

I used 1 bar of peppermint Castille soap and 1 bar of lavender. The smell of this detergent is AMAZING!

DIY Laundry Detergent for Sensitive Skin

• 8 cups of baking soda
• 6 cups of Super Washing Soda (in the laundry aisle)
• 2 bars Dr. Bronner’s Castille soap, grated

Mix all the ingredients together and store in an airtight container. If you want, you can pulse the grate soap in a blender or food processor along with some of the baking soda to make the soap finer. It blends better that way–up to you!

To Use:

Add 1/8 to 1/4 cup of detergent (depending on the load size) to the detergent compartment of your washing machine. If you want to eliminate fabric softener from your list of things you buy that has yucky chemicals in it, add 1/2 a cup of white vinegar to the fabric softener compartment. Your clothes come out just as soft and there is no vinegar smell.

Now, let me answer some questions I know will come up:

FAQ:

Does this work for HE washing machines?

Yes! Yes it does. I have an HE machine and it works just great.

Does this detergent work on the cold setting?

Yep! The soap dissolves just fine in cold water.

Does it work well on stains?

Yes! I still pretreat really icky stains before I wash, and this detergent works just as well (if not better!) on stains as my previous store bought detergent.

How much detergent does this make?

I usually wash one load of laundry per day, and this is about a three month supply.

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