Green, Cheap, & Clean

One of my favorite bloggers over at Foodie for Thought, who has an arsenal of food recipes and also interesting ideas for a variety of other household things, published this recipe for homemade laundry detergent. I tried it and liked it, then decided to strengthen it by adding less water, so that a bucket full would last me even longer.

As she says, "It may sound complicated, but I cannot stress enough how simple this to make! After preparing this recipe successfully twice, I'm totally hooked. It's insanely cheap (something like under $.02 per load), 100% natural for the body, 100% safe for the environment, plus it actually does get my family's clothes clean. What more could a girl want?!"

So... get yourself a bucket with a lid, and try this out!


You will need:

8 cups water
1 bar Ivory Soap, grated
1 1/3 cups washing powder (look for Arm & Hammer, bright yellow box)
1 1/3 cups Borax
10 cups hot water

1. Grate the soap into a pot containing the first 8 cups of water and heat over low until dissolved. Add the Borax and washing powder, and stir it until it thickens. Remove from heat.

2. Pour the 10 cups of hot water into the bucket, then add the soap mixture and stir until smooth. Let it sit for 24 hours to thicken.

*You might want to save an old detergent bottle to refill it with your new soap, so that you only have to open the bucket once in a while. Use 1/2 cup or so for each load.

*The first time I made this, it turned out lumpy looking, but still worked well. It was smoother the second time (when I used this recipe).