Home Made Laundry Detergent One Year Later
It’s been a little over a year that I’ve been using homemade laundry detergent. I’ve got to say that overall I found it to be a positive experiment. There are a few tweaks here and there and a little bit of intervention required but all in all I will continue to use the homemade laundry detergent. Here are my general observations:
Liquid Laundry Detergent:
This is the more economical of the two options (here’s the recipe). It makes a much larger batch and can go a lot further than the
powdered option. However, I found that modifying the ingredients a little bit gave me varying results.
Variation 1: Ivory soap.
I believe the best batches of homemade laundry detergent were those made with Ivory soap. For a little extra cleaning power I tried a combination of Ivory and Fels Naptha
Variation 2: Lever Soap
One day while making homemade laundry detergent I realized that I and didn’t have Ivory soap and I was
in a pinch so I used Lever instead. Although I liked the smell of Lever, I found that it didn’t quite get rid of some of the odors.
When the clothes came out of the washer and dryer, they smelled good and fresh, but once the clothes came into contact with human sweat, they generated an unpleasant smell. The smell was not overpowering but just enough to realize that your clothes shouldn’t smell like that. I found that the neckline of the t-shirts seemed to smell the worst, probably because it’s closer to the nose than other areas.
Let’s face it, no one smells like a daisy after a workout, but this smell was a different smell and one that I’d rather not have in my clothes.
Powdered laundry detergent
I found the powdered laundry detergent to work best. It’s not only quicker and easier to make, but it seemed to get rid of odors and clean the clothes very well. It costs slightly more than the homemade liquid laundry detergent, but it’s worth the extra couple of cents per load. It’s still much less expensive than store bought laundry detergent.
Downside:
I did find one downside is that there seems to be in accumulating dinginess that occurs with white clothes. It took me a little while to realize the change, but after looking at the white clothes over a period of time, they seemed to lose their brightness. When I first noticed it, I added additional bleach to the wash, but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. I noticed this more with the liquid than the powdered detergent.
Conclusion:
I will continue to use the homemade laundry detergent using the powdered version more so than the liquid. The liquid one I found to be a great pre-treatment for hard to get rid of stains. I poured the liquid detergent directly on the stain, rubbed it in a little and laundered as usual.
Homemade laundry detergent has gotten us through a year of ground in grass, dirt, mud and geese poop stains on white football uniforms. It also got us through various and assorted construction projects, cheer leading uniforms, gym workout clothes and normal every day wear and tear (not to mention Fido’s bedding).
So far, the homemade laundry detergent has been able to handle 98 to 99% of all the stains. I would recommend purchasing one box of your favorite store-bought detergent to periodically use on white clothes to maintain their bright whiteness.
As far as the cost savings…
I average about 2 - 3 loads of laundry a day six days a week. At two per day, over a period of a year that equals 624 loads for the year (an underestimation).
If half of the loads were washed with homemade liquid detergent and the other half with homemade powdered detergent, the calculations would be as follows:
624 divided by 2 = 312 liquid and 312 powdered
312 times 1 cent per liquid load = $3.12
312 times 3.5 cents per powdered load = $10.92
Total cost to wash 624 loads = $14.04
Do you think the store-bought detergent will get you 624 loads of laundry for $14.04?
MY God, people wonder why we are running out of water?
I’m sorry but for a blog that talks about living green in it’s title, and that living green is a way of life, shouldn’t you be more concerned with you mass water usage?
The average washing machine uses 55 gallons of water per load.
3 loads per day x 55 gallons =165 gallons of water
165 x 6 days a week = 990 gallons of water
990 x 52 weeks = 51480 gallons of water per year you use to wash your clothes….
I hope at least you are collecting rain water to wash your clothes with.
Does anybody else find this repulsive?
I appreciate your desire to conserve water, but I feel I have to correct you on one of your assumptions. According to your comment, you assume that I’m using the usual top-loading machine, which uses approximately 50 gallons of water per wash.
I’m using a high efficiency front-loading machine which not only uses about half the amount of water as it’s top loading counterpart, it also uses less energy and soap powder. According to my calculations instead of using 51,480 gallons of water as you point out, it’s more like 23,400 gallons.
In spite of your rather harsh criticism of my water consumption, I do hope that you were able to benefit from my year’s worth of experience with homemade laundry detergent. If you can come up with a way to reduce the number of required wash loads, please share them with me. In my household, clean clothes are truly a necessity.
My best to you, Mark.
as they are in our household, which for the record consists of 2 adults (both runners) and 2 teenagers (one runner and one fashion maven) plus a dog, 2 cats, 2 snakes, a zillion fish and kids’ assorted friends who come over and forget items of clothing that are then washed and returned. i do between 4 and 6 full loads of laundry a week - including all clothes, linens, and the occasional running shoe/dog bed/throw rug. we have enough clothes so that everybody can go a week and not run out, and we generally wear shorts/pants/jeans 2 days, but other than that it’s once on and then into the wash. i make sure i have everybody’s clothes before i do laundry so we have full loads most of the time, and i’m pretty vigilant about water levels when i’m doing a partial load, but i really only do a few loads a couple of times a week. what are you washing so much of?
btw, i bought a giant jug of purportedly all natural detergent at costco for $12 - it is good for 210 loads, does a fine job and comes out to .06 per load. not the bargain you’re talking about but no tracking down washing soda and borax, so the time and gas i save is probably worth the $7 extra i spend.
also, i also have taken to doing my laundry on sunny days so that i can dry things outside. we have a courtyard and i’ve strung up a clothesline and hang things on the back of patio chairs to dry - works very nicely. i run things through the dryer to get rid of wrinkles and soften up the towels, but i usually run the dryer for maybe an hour a week now instead of 6+. and things do have that nice line dried feel and smell, which is good.
Hi Dee Dee
I look back at my weekly laundry and although I don’t wash every day, it still averages to quite a few loads each week.
Today, for instance, I did about 4 loads. That will buy me a little time so that tomorrow I won’t wash, but you can bet by the next day I’ll have to wash again.
I’ve found that since giving up on paper towels, I use more cloth towels that begin to smell if they’re not washed at least every other day. I do my best to ensure that each load is filled to capacity.
I see that you wash 4 to 6 loads a week. I don’t know how you do it. I must be doing something wrong. Between work clothes, play clothes, workout clothes, towels, sheets, etc, I just haven’t figured out how to reduce the number of loads.
I’m going to track each load over the next couple of weeks more diligently to see if there’s anyway to cut back. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Hey, just wanted to pop in with a possible explanation for the dingyness of the whites, I believe many commercial detergents have chemicals in them the fluoresce under UV light, thus making whites appear whiter, home made detergent probably doesn’t have this
aaah yes, smelly towel syndrome. one thing that helps both kitchen and bath towels is to make sure they’re hung up to dry when wet - that way you can stave off the musty smell for a few more days. same thing goes for kitchen sponges, which i toss into the bleach load when they start to stink. and i have a dozen very inexpensive washcloths that i use for cleaning counters and wiping things up instead of using paper towels or larger towels - they are a breeze to wash and that saves the dish towels for drying dishes and hands. i haven’t quite broken my husband of the habit of mopping up spilled tomato sauce with the pot holder or my favorite linen glass cloth, though.
another thing that gets things smelling good is vinegar. i have a giant bottle of white vinegar and i pour some into smelly loads - workout clothes, musty towels, etc - things come out smelling great. oxi-clean seems to help on lights and whites, too.
we only have 3 beds to change sheets on, so that helps. and i bug everybody to hang up bath towels so we only have to wash them every week or so. other than that, everybody probably goes through an average of 1 change of clothes a day, with wearing pants >1 time and using extra tshirts and running clothes. i have convinced the kids that cleaning up their rooms does not consist of dumping everything on the floor (including clean clothes) into the hamper. that has helped a lot.
anyhow, all that usually gives me about 5 loads (in our big old dinosaur of a top load washer, which i will replace with a front loader the second it finally dies) - one bleach load, one whites no bleach, one lights, one darks, one blacks and synthetic running clothes. it generally takes 2 days to get through all the laundry because of the air drying, and then we’re good for the rest of the week. maybe your kids are younger - they do get less grubby as they get older. but you can always give a pep talk about saving water by only putting their dirty clothes in the wash.
but it’s a gradual process that takes buy in from the family. you do what you can, right?
good luck!
dd
Hi Felicia,
Just wanted to comment to say Good Job on your efforts on making your own laundry soap. I don’t understand why some of these people that are commenting are blasting you for your water usage and for trying something new. It’s not kind, nor is it fair. We can all try in our own way to be as environmentally conscious as possible with out knocking others down in the process.
I, too, make my own laundry soap. We just bought a new HE front loader, and I have been using my homemade soap, though I am concerned because the directions say to use the HE detergent. The machine was expensive and I don’t want to ruin it by using something else. However, their reasoning is that the HE detergent has less suds, which my homemade detergent has none of. What do you think? Can you reassure me?
Anyway, I enjoy your blog. Keep up the good work and don’t let critical people get you down.
Thanks Natalie and Dee Dee. Great advice and encouragement.
As far as homemade detergent in the HE machine, I’ve been using it for a year and it’s all fine. You’re right Natalie, HE machines require low sudsing soap which makes homemade soap perfect for them.
I scared the pants off of my kids by telling them that I’m only doing 4 to 6 loads a week. My son is afraid that it will put a damper on his social life :). My daughter couldn’t care less at this point as long as she has a bathing suit and a dry towel when she needs one.
I realize that making green choices sometimes require sacrifices. I’m willing to sacrifice a few loads of laundry each week!
Thanks guys for the words of encouragement.
Hi Felicia,
I stopped in to comment on another post (the solar oven post) and got sucked in. I have now bookmarked your post on laundry detergent because we have started a similar process for our laundry.
We do not make our own detergent (yet), but we have cut in half the amount we use. We also have an HE machine, and along with the detergent, we use a half cup baking soda (which is supposed to help remove dirt and break down the soap) and between a quarter cup and a half cup white vinegar, which is supposed to help with smell as well as removing soap.
Just this past month or so we also started using Mrs. Stewarts Bluing which is supposed to help brighten colors and whiten whites.
After all that, we also line dry (about 3 months now) to reduce energy use and heat in our home.
Now, when we need to replace our laundry soap I will give your homemade system a try.
Thanks for the great information.
Tracy
Thanks for the tip.
I’m going to try the Mrs. Stewarts Bluing because as I mentioned in my post, my whites got a bit dingy. I’ll see if it helps.
Felicia