Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe
Modern laundry detergents are pricey and laden with hormone-disrupting and cancer-causing chemicals. Here at Calico and Twine, we have been making homemade laundry detergent for well over 15 years now and we want to make it easy for you to do the same! This recipe is also what we use to wash all of our fabric and clothes before selling.
Homemade detergent is most commonly made with Fels-Naptha soap. I believe this is mainly because it has been around for so long and people simply assume it's safe and nontoxic. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. The reason we don't use Fels-Naptha is because it contains synthetic fragrance, unhealthy oils, talc, dye, and more. Check out the EWG rating here.
Instead we have come to use a homemade soap that is made uniquely for laundry. In our Homestead Laundry Bars, the coconut oil provides powerful cleansing properties. While body soap is made with moisturization in mind, our laundry soap purposefully contains a low superfat after saponification—meaning there there is very little oil leftover—making it safe to use in your wash machine without fear of buildup. This soap is handmade right here on our homestead with organic ingredients and are free of toxic chemicals, synthetic fragrance, and dyes.
One bar is grated up, diluted in water, and combined with super washing soda and borax to create TEN GALLONS of gentle yet powerful nontoxic detergent. This is a huge batch that saves a lot of time and a lot of money. Not only that, but you can use it in good conscience knowing it is safe for your family, your pets, and the environment.
What you need:
1 bar of Calico and Twine’s Laundry Soap
1 cup of Super Washing Soda
1 cup of Borax
Water
5 gallon bucket
Saucepan
To Prepare:
1. Fill a 5 gallon bucket just under halfway with hot water. Add in the Super Washing Soda and Borax, stirring until dissolved.
2. Grate the soap bar using a cheese grater and add it to a pan with about a quart of water. Melt this over medium heat.
3. Once the soap is melted, add it to the bucket and give it a stir.
4. Cover the bucket and let this sit 24-48 hours. During this time it should thicken and become a gel-like consistency.
5. Once the solution has gelled, fill the bucket up the rest of the way with water. You now have 5 gallons of concentrated laundry soap.
6. For ease of use, we like to maintain a smaller jar that has already been diluted and is ready to pour into a load of laundry. Give the solution a stir (this is important because it separates after sitting) and then dilute the detergent 1:1 with water in a container or glass jar. Use about 1/2 cup-3/4 cup in your wash cycle depending on how big the load is.
7. Keep the large bucket of laundry detergent covered in your laundry room and simply give it a stir, dilute, and refill your detergent container as needed!
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