I’ve been making my own laundry soap for a while now. Well, it’s not really making it, it’s more like I assemble it.
It’s easy enough. I used to make a liquid version, which involved cookery. My HE front loading washer didn’t like the liquid, so now I make powder.
Here’s how:
5-7 oz. bar of soap (1 bar Zote, Fels Naptha, Pure and Simple, Ivory. Make sure it’s SOAP not a beauty bar or moisturizing bar. I buy a 14 oz. Zote for $1 in the laundry aisle and double the recipe.)
1 c. Borax
1 c. Washing soda (Walmart doesn’t carry it, but most local groceries, including Kroger, do. Look on the very top or the very bottom shelf. Can’t find it? Make it in your oven with baking soda!)
1/2 c. OxiClean or other powdered oxygen cleaner.
Using a food processor or cheese grater, grate your soap. I use the “fine” side of a box grater. Add the borax and the washing soda.
I process mine in my blender to break up the soap shreds, so it looks like powder. I often use cold water in my wash and I think the smaller soap particles dissolve better. It just takes a minute. Learn from my mistakes and process it in 1-2 cup batches, using the pulse feature.
Add the powdered oxygen bleach after you pulverize it. The oxygen bleach is very fine and poufs up in a cloud of dust, so you don’t want to run it through machinery unless you want to choke half to death. Again- learn from my mistakes!
Ta-da! Laundry detergent.
Use 1 tbsp. for light loads, 2 Tbsp. for heavily soiled. 2 tablespoons = 1/8 cup.
Why, yes. Yes you can save money. I estimate it costs me about $2.50 to make 7-8 cups of detergent, more or less (doubling recipe). Pretty much all of my loads are heavy (I do use less for towels), so let’s say 56 heavy loads (or 100 regular loads.) That’s just 2-4¢ per load! And it doesn’t make my husband break out, it’s safe for baby clothes, and it doesn’t make me sneeze.
Note: This recipe isn’t set in stone. You’ll find varying ratios of soap/borax/washing soda all over the internet. This is the recipe I use that works for me. If you have hard water, add a little more borax. If you have really filthy clothes, use more soap.
I have a Samsung front loading HE washer, and I’ve used this detergent for over a year.
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Thanks for the recipe!
I make my own too, and I prefer Fels Naptha over Zote. With Zote, I have to use at least 2 tablespoons per load. With Fels Naptha, I only nee one.
And I can attest that this does work in an HE machine.
P.S. I hope you enjoy the succotash recipe. Just to clarify, I used dry lima beans that I had previously cooked, but the recipe said it worked for either dry or fresh.
Almost forgot–
My favorite thing about homemade detergent is that it doesn’t leave any residue on the clothes. With commercial detergent, my hands would always feel yucky after I finished folding the clothes (especially socks). With the homemade stuff, there’s no residue to gunk up my hands.
@Rachel,
My husband dislikes it for that reason only- the clothes come out smelling like cloth, not like Mountain Breezes. But I have bad allergies- I can’t take scented soaps or detergents. Those Purex fabric softening crystals affected me so bad I couldn’t even wear the clothes!
I’m planning to use dry beans that I cook in plain water.
Do you have any suggestions for making detergent for a regular washing machine? Haven’t yet updated to the fancy HE one yet. Thank You!
@Candice this will work in a regular machine. HE detergents are just formulated to be less sudsy, that’s all. This detergent will clean clothes in a regular washer, but you won’t see frothy bubbles while it’s washing.
The only place around here that I’ve seen Zote soap for sale is the Hispanic grocery store.
I buy mine at Walmart or HEB (a local grocery) but I’ve also seen it at Kroger. Fels Naptha or Ivory bar soap will work, too.
You use some cloth diapers right? How does this soap work with them? I have been using Charlie’s soap and while it works great it is so expensive. Thanks!
@Evelyn,
It works fine for my diapers. I use Kawaii covers (sometimes gDiapers as covers) and Indian prefolds. Doesn’t seem to affect absorbency or cause rashes in my babies. I do have an HE washer and wash the diapers on the sanitize cycle, which gives them an extra rinse.
Love your recipe, and it is unique in that you use your blender. I haven’t seen that before! I was wondering though, does this effect any tastes when you later make food items using your blender? Just wondering.
BTW, I liked your recipe so much I featured it in my blog’s weekly link round up. Here’s the link: Cleaning, Laundry & Stain Removal Links For The Week
Thanks again!
@Taylor,
Thanks for linking to me- that’s a nice compliment. It doesn’t affect the taste at all. After all, it’s just soap! So as long as I wash and rinse the blender very well it’s fine. (I would guess it would be about the same as putting the blender in the dishwasher with DW detergent.)
I pulverize it in the blender so that the soap particles are smaller, and therefore have more surface area overall, because HE washers use less water and also to dissolve in cold water. Although with temps over 100 degrees all last month here, the “cold” tap water is really lukewarm, lol.
Honestly, the hardest thing about this recipe is getting the soap residue off the cheese grater- but a vegetable brush and hot water does a good job.
I love making a dry laundry detergent too. However, I was happily surprised to find washing soda at my local Walmart. I even did a little happy dance. (Most of the time I run by that aisle, as it gets my allergies going.) I like to add a little tea tree oil to my mix, or sometimes lavender oil. They help to keep everything smelling great by killing the bacteria that cause the smells.
I just mixed up a batch of this recipe and I do like it better than others. I also added 3/4 cup of purex complete crystals that I chopped up in the blender. (Only because my family insists that the clothes are too rough/scratchy when they come out of wash, plus they insist on things smelling like perfume for some reason) I use a heaping tablespoon and it is doing great so far.
Thanks for the blender part to the directions! I prefer powder and when I made it before without blending, I felt like it just wasn’t dissolving or mixed up enough. It’s funny how I couldn’t think of this simple remedy.
I SO Want to try this! Do you all put this in your HE soap dispenser or directly in the tub? Thanks so much!
I put it directly in the dispenser. My washing machine has a little flap you lift or lower depending on whether you are using powder or liquid detergent.
I’ve made my own detergent for about a year and a half now and LOVE it! I use Fels Naptha bar soap, borax, and washing soda as well but I make the liquid version. Sometimes I add a few drops of teatree oil in the bottle I am currently using. I don’t do the entire batch because I like the plain smell as well. I used Ivory the first time I made it and liked that smell as well…but I think the Fels Naptha cleans better. I will not go back to the store-bought stuff!
Thank you for posting this! I’m curious, though, you said your machine didn’t like the liquid. What do you mean by that? I’m just trying to decide whether to do the liquid or powder.
Hi Colleen,
The homemade liquid didn’t always dissolve all the way, and it was clogging the drain hose and drain filter.
I just tried this recipe. I really do like the blending part, it makes it much more smooth. I had to blend in sections so that the soap didn’t gum up. I really noticed that when using Zote. I made 2 batches, one with the Zote (which was the gummier of the soaps) and one with a fragrance soap. I love both of them and used 1 TBSP for the wash. Thanks for the great recipe!
I am debating if i should try homemade detergent or not…. any suggestions on what to use to softhen the clothes (fabric softner). Thanks
Norbina
You could use any fabric softener, just as usual. Dryer sheets, liquid softener, or add those new Purex crystals to your detergent.
I found a tip for making fabric softener stretch about 2 yrs ago and have used it since! It also works for static issues and I don’t even buy the sheets anymore. Buy a bottle of a decent liquid fabric softener. In a container w/ lid, mix equal parts softener with water. Cut plain sponges in half (i got a bag of 8 for a buck) and store in the mixture. When you go to dry a load, squeeze out one of the sponges and toss it in the dryer. Works AWESOME!
I’ve heard tips like that before and that sounds like a great way to make fabric softener last!
Ok I made some (dry formula). I used Fels Naptha since I’d already bought it. The blender didn’t do a good job (maybe the humidity here makes the bar too moist?) so I grated it. Before putting the finished powder in the washer (front load), I added warm water to help dissolve it. Well the bar soap pieces don’t dissolve even when left for an hour! I wondered how it could be effective if the soap doesn’t dissolve and would it clog somewhere? I also added some Miracle II liquid soap which I’ve always added when using Kirkland (Costco) liquid laundry detergent.
WELL…I have to say after my very first load, I noticed evidence that this homemade mix might really be something great!
1) There was a drop of blood on a pillowcase that I’d forgotten to pre-treat. It was GONE! The previous week I discovered blood from a scratch on my hub’s leg on a sheet (same set as the pillowcase) AFTER the sheet came out of the dryer. In other words, both times untreated stains were on the same fabric, Kirkland detergent did not get it out, the homemade one DID!
2) I threw in a towel that I’d washed and dried more than once with the Kirkland detergent. It had “permanent” dirt stains on it after two washings. I used it after coloring my hair (henna cream, brown). Well I never dreamt it’d actually look clean again, but it did! Wow!
Thanks again for the recipe!
An easier way to powder the Zote (love it!) is the microwave. I cut the Zote up into 4-8 chunks (depending on my mood), spread them (more surface area) in a microwave safe glass rectangular dish and microwave, initially for 2 minutes – then 30-60 seconds at a time. The Zote will puff and look alive as the water is driven off. You can finder crumble the pink fluff. Let the pink fluff cool before further powdering it in the blender. Using the microwave also cuts down significantly on the “gumminess” – the color and texture change in Zote is obvious – but not so clear with the Colgate Octagon bar.
I found this googling HE homemade laundry soap. I was wondering where you put it in the machine. Do you put it in the pull out tray or just throw it in the tub. THANK YOU!!!
I put it in the regular soap dispenser, just like I would any other laundry soap. Be careful putting the powder directly on your clothes, washing soda can be harsh on them.
I made the laundry detergent with a lil modification like I was instructed to with the fabric softener crystals and it does a wonderful job! Thanks for the recipe!!! Now ia am inspired to try other stuff like dishwashing detergent
Do you have a recipe? I would like to stick to your recipes since the first one I tried was a complete success 
I have tried a ton of recipes for dishwasher detergent, but never found one that worked well without leaving a film on plastic. I have a very low end dishwasher and the DW recipes just don’t work for me in this house. Sorry!
I forgot to add in that my husband picked up the things I needed to make the detergent and bought name brand stuff making my detergent a whopping 11cents where before I was paying 11cents a load on detergent alone. I’m sure if he had followed directions and got store brand or the less expensive brand I would have saved even more on my hm detergent. The best part is I’m saving 6cents on my laundry softener. Again thanks for having this website! I find it very helpful.
I had come across a similar recipe, only it didn’t have the oxygen cleaner in it and I have loved using it. Next batch I will add the oxygen cleaner to it and see if there is a major difference. To help with the static in my dryer, I also have been using a liquid softener that I pour on a hand towel and then let it dry. It will work for about 12 loads of laundry, then I do it again. You will see it start to disappear each time you use it. It has worked wonderfully as it only takes about a capful each time you “wet down” your towel. So your softener lasts so much longer than if you use it in each load.
Can I ask how much detergent you use on your cloth diapers? Do you still use 1 Tbsp? I’m using Country save right now in my HE Samsung washer. Only use just a little bit at a time but am looking to make my own detergent now and would like to not have to buy three different types of detergent like I am now.
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