How to Make Laundry Soap or Detergent

Make your own laundry soap for cost savings.

If you have children who are sensitive to laundry soap or if you consider laundry soap in the store to be expensive, you may have wondered how easy or difficult it is to make your own. You might be surprised to learn laundry soap is not only easy to make, but cost-effective as well. All of the ingredients for this recipe should cost you between $6 and $8 total. The bar soap itself will be the most expensive. If you follow all instructions, the batch of laundry soap will last about as long as a typical box of laundry detergent bought at the store, about 60 loads. The Borax and washing soda can be used for at least 10 batches of laundry soap, making the cost of each batch less than $2.

Things You'll Need

• Bar soap
• Borax
• Washing soda
• Food processor or blender

Instructions

1. Select the bar of soap you would like to use. If you want your laundry detergent or soap to be natural, choose a natural bar of soap. You can use any kind of soap, as long as it is soap and not a "beauty bar."

2. Use a knife to break up the soap into about four to six pieces. The pieces don't have to be pretty -- they are about to be ground up in a food processor anyway.

3. Put the pieces of soap into the food processor and grind them. Make sure the soap is in the form of a powder when you are done. One bar of soap should make about 1 cup of powder. Don't worry about whether the soap makes exactly 1 cup, just ensure the measurement is close.

4. Put the soap into a container that has a lid. Add 1/2 cup Borax and 1/2 cup washing soda -- not baking soda. Put the lid on the container and shake it up.

5. You're ready to use your laundry soap. You can use as little as 2 tbsp. of laundry detergent per load of laundry.

Tips & Warnings

• Borax is usually sold in a box with the name brand of Twenty Mule Team Borax.

• Washing soda is usually found under the Arm and Hammer brand. Find it in the laundry section of your local grocery store.

• When you grind up the bar soap in your food processor, it will be loud.

• Do not substitute baking soda for the washing soda. The chemical makeup of the two is slightly different and baking soda will not work.