DIY Natural Laundry Detergent

Learn how to make your own DIY Natural Laundry Detergent with just a few ingredients and essential oils. Save money with this non-toxic laundry cleaner.

Closeup of DIY laundry detergent with orange and a bar of soap in the background

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I just can’t believe how easy it is to make your own all-natural laundry detergent. It makes me cringe to think how much I used to shell out for natural and organic store-bought laundry detergents. It’s so simple to make your own.

Ingredients to Make Laundry Detergent

  • Castile soap in a bar is great way to really stretch out your dollar. You just grate the bar soap (like you would cheese) and then follow the directions in this recipe to mix it into a powder with the other ingredients. It provides a mild sudsy action that helps to clean clothes.
  • Washing soda helps to soften hard water to make cleaning clothes more effective.
  • Boarax helps to brighten clothes. It very alkaline so it helps to clean clothes well.
  • Essential oils provide the natural fragrance in this recipe. 

What Essential Oils to Use?

You can use a combination of essential oils to provide the natural scent in this recipe, including:

Find out how to buy essential oils at wholesale, and get a starter kit for 60% off retail prices. It’s the best deal around and a great way to get started with essential oils.

Purification essential oil (a blend of citronella, lemongrass, lavandin, rosemary, melaleuca and myrtle essential oils) is very effective in deodorizing and removing odors from fabric. You can also use Citronella essential oil in place of Purification.

How to Make this Laundry Detergent – Step by Step

1. Grate one soap bar with a cheese grater.

2. Combine all grated castile soap, 1 cup washing soda, 1/2 cup Borax and 10-15 drops essential oils in a blender or food processor and mix until it turns into a fine powder.

3. Process the small pieces of soap, washing soda and Borax together in a food processor or blender until it is well mixed.

4. Store the laundry detergent in an airtight glass container.

5. Use 1-2 tbsp of detergent per load.

How to Use This Natural Laundry Detergent

Use 1-2 tbsp of this DIY laundry detergent per load. You may need to do an extra rinse if you find the granules don’t break down (possible if you have a HE washing machine) and/or include white vinegar in the laundry rinse.

Closeup of DIY laundry detergent with orange and a bar of soap in the background

I’ve gone green with my laundry for a few years now. We have a front-loading energy-efficient washing machine, which I love because it cuts down on water usage significantly. I always use just a scoop or two of this DIY Laundry Detergent.

While it’s tempting to use more, it’s important not to do it. Too much detergent can create excess suds – that doesn’t make your clothes cleaner, it actually creates more problems.

Are You Using Too Much Laundry Detergent?

Here are 7 reasons why you should avoid using too much laundry detergent:

  1. It leaves a stain or residue on clothes.
  2. The odor in many washing machines is caused by excess residue trapped in the washer.
  3. Loads may not have a change to drain properly – causing clothes to be more wet and take more time to dry.
  4. Leaking, particularly in front load washers, can occur.
  5. It may take more energy to wash clothes as the washer automatically adds extra rinses and pauses to break down the excess suds.
  6. The water savings you think you’re getting is literally going down the drain due to the extra rinse cycle needed to rinse out the extra suds.
  7. There’s could be increased wear and tear on the washing machine’s pump and motor because the suds act like a brake, and the washing machine works overtime all the time.

So when it’s time to do laundry, be sure to use the amount of detergent – whether it’s a scoop or two of a DIY detergent or what’s indicated on the bottle of a store-bought detergent.

How to Get Started with Essential Oils

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DIY Natural Laundry Detergent in a glass jar on a tray

DIY Natural Laundry Detergent

Don’t Mess With Mama
Learn how to make your own DIY Natural Laundry Detergent with just a few ingredients and essential oils. Save money with this non-toxic laundry cleaner.
5 from 2 votes
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings 30 uses

Ingredients
  

Instructions
 

  • Grate soap bar with a cheese grater.
  • Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and mix until it turns into a fine powder.
  • Process the small pieces of soap, washing soda and Borax together in a food processor or blender until it is well mixed.
  • Store the laundry detergent in an airtight glass container.
  • Use 1-2 tbsp of detergent per load.

Notes

How to Use This Natural Laundry Detergent
Use 1-2 tbsp of this DIY laundry detergent per load. You may need to do an extra rinse if you find the granules don’t break down (possible if you have a HE washing machine) and/or include white vinegar in the laundry rinse.
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26 Comments

  1. I would love to try this!
    I do laundry with a wringer washer [It is electric. :)] in the summertime to save water, since it gets so hot and we do so much watering. After washing clothes, the water gets drained onto our veggies, shrubs, flowers, etc. I’ve been buying Ecos laundry detergent, because I don’t want to harm our plants. Would this recipe work? We’ve used Kirk’s castille soap for years already and love it.
    [Yes, I actually killed blueberry bushes years ago by watering them with laundry water, so sad!:( I learned too late that the soap was turning the soil too alkaline.]

    1. What a great idea to reuse the water. I love it. I don’t know if the laundry water will affect your garden. Have you tried castile soap water in your garden before? You mentioned using castile soap before.

    1. Yes, definitely. I used it in my HE washer with no problems. The recommendation is to combine in a cup of warm water and add directly to your laundry, but I’ve just added the powder to my laundry and it was fine too. The powder just doesn’t work in the little detergent door – that’s for concentrated liquids.