DIY Laundry Detergent

My bestie Ali from Ballpoint + Pen is going to share her amazing (and simple!) DIY laundry detergent with us today!

Hello there! My dear friend Savannah asked me to share my DIY laundry detergent. I strongly believe in natural cleaning products and am a little frightened of the chemicals in some store bought cleaners! So in the interest of saving money and healthy living I decided to make a few of our cleaning products out of natural and inexpensive products. The first thing I tried was laundry detergent which turned out AWESOME! It was pretty simple too.

 It is one of those things where when you tell people, "Oh yeah I made laundry detergent today.." They are like "What! How did you do that!" It sounds way more impressive than it is.
All you need is Borax, Washing Soda (but I used baking soda because I couldnt find washing soda ANYWHERE!) and a bar of a hard soap. I have used a organic lemon verbena soap from Whole Foods, as well as Kirk's Castile Soap and both worked well, just not very fragrant. You can always add a little bit of essential oil though if you want that. Borax and baking soda are dirt cheap so you can make a lot of detergent for not a lot of money.

I found the Borax at Target and you can get a huge bag of baking soda which I plan to do next time we go :)You can buy your soap anywhere I just happened to get mine at Whole Foods.



First you want to grate your soap..I just used my cheese grater and used very short strokes so it would be in very small pieces. I actually decided to designate a grater just for this purpose.  Afterward I just washed it in super hot water. It worked really well. I also put down a paper towel to grate the soap into so I can use it as a funnel.



Then just mix together 1 cup of the soap flakes, 1/2 cup for borax, and 1/2 cup of baking soda (or washing soda if you find it). Mix it well. I just used a spoon and it worked fine.
You only need 2 tbsp per small load of laundry! I am a chronic detergent over user, so I use a little more for a large load but you still don't need a lot. I have used up to a 1/2 cup though, so you can judge based on your clothing and washer.

So there you go! Homemade laundry detergent! Have fun with it!

.::love ali::.