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The Best Smelling Homemade Laundry Soap / Detergent

The Best Smelling Homemade Laundry Soap / Detergent


Homemade laundry soap with scent beads
Laundry Soap can get expensive in a house with four children, two of whom are teenage girls.  The only people on earth who make more laundry than teenage girls are teenage boys and I have one of those, (as well as a preteen) too.  Needless to say, we go through a lot of laundry detergent.

I've tried the generic brands as well as the store brands but they just don't do it for me.  I'm addicted to the fresh fragrance of clean clothes, and those cheaper brands just don't have any fragrance in my opinion once things come out of the dryer. 

So about a year ago my sister and best friend, Tiff turned me on to her version of homemade laundry detergent.  While I loved it, and it's fragrance, I've upped some things, and left out others out completely to optimize it to my taste,  but I will forever be grateful to her because I estimate she has saved me over $100 in the past year.  The recipe below is my adapted recipe, and will fits nicely into a 5-gallon bucket (available at Lowe's or Home Depot) 

When I make this, I buy double the ingredients and make two 5-gallon buckets FULL.  As I said, we do a lot of laundry!  Although we only use about 1/2 cup per load, we still go through both buckets every five months.

Home-made laundry soap
1 - 4lb 12oz. box Borax
2 - 3lb 7oz box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 - 3lb box Oxyclean
1 - 4lb box Baking Soda
5-  bottles Downey Unstoppables Scent Boosters

Directions:
Open all boxes/bottles and pour half of each into a large container.  Mix thoroughly with a large wooden spoon.  Empty remainder of boxes/bottles and mix thoroughly once again.

Note:  It is very difficult to mix powders at these quantities.  I typically do this outside so I don't get any powder on the floor, and mixing each half separately helps makes it a little easier.  If you dump everything in at once, it's not likely that you'll be able to get to the bottom of the container and blend the ingredients well.

Also, I usually make each batch with matching scent booster beads - but this past time, I combined blue and pink ones, and I just love the layered scent effect it's giving our laundry.  Try it sometime!



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Comments

Unknown said…
I can definitely relate to your situation on the laundry problem. Hahaha! Being born into a big family and having a big one now myself made me used to the sight of mountain heaps of laundry. Detergent is definitely a precious resource in those conditions and buying branded ones in sack full can be cost-inefficient. That DIY detergent is an especially good solution for just that. I'm definitely trying your recipe out. Thank you so much for sharing it! Happy fall cleaning!

German Zollinger @ Total Clean
September 23, 2014 at 2:14 PM
Elizabeth Obsesses said…
German Zollinger - thank you for your comments, and it's good to see that I am not alone in the mountains of laundry! Please stop back and let me know how this works for you!
September 23, 2014 at 3:09 PM
Leah Burns said…
Everyone, especially mothers, has definitely to know some recipe like that. I am a mother as well and I know how many laundries I got per day. Thanks for sharing with us
October 7, 2015 at 9:55 AM
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