Semi-Homemade Laundry Detergent

This post may contain affiliate links.  See my disclosure for more information.

Did you ever watch, “Semi-Homemade Cooking” with Sandra Lee?  It used to be on the Food network.  She would make recipes which included one or more convenience foods, but were mostly all homemade.  Maybe she would use a seasoning packet instead of just herbs and spices, or a cake mix would be doctored to ‘taste homemade’.

I made my own laundry detergent for a while using various recipes I found online.  There are a lot out there, but I determined that I was not interested in moving this show to my kitchen, so recipes that required the use of my food processor or large pots on the stove were out.

I landed on one that called for me to grate bars of soap, mixing the resulting shreds with Borax, Washing Soda, and Oxy Clean.  Heck, I even made my own soap to use for a while (it’s not as difficult as you’d think!)

So I am not dissing DIY detergent, but I have moved on to my “Semi-Homemade” version and don’t see myself going back.

The main reason I went DIY in the first place was to save money.  It’s amazing how far homemade detergent stretches!  And my semi-homemade version is no different.

But I made the switch to this version because of our noses.

I know our laundry was clean, but we missed the “clean laundry” smell.  Gain.  We missed the smell of Gain.

So I replaced the grated soap for powdered Gain detergent.

And I took out the washing soda (mainly because I didn’t have it once and didn’t miss it).  I read later that its main purpose is to soften hard water to make stains come out more easily, and we have soft water.  So it never got added back in the mix.

If you’re wondering what Borax is, check out this link.  Also, if you are concerned about the safety of using Borax, here is an article that set my mind at ease.

 

All I do is mix equal parts of:

Powdered Laundry Detergent (or grated soap – if you opt for this, I’ve heard Fels-Naptha is a good choice)

Borax

Oxy Clean

 

Easy Peasy!

I keep ours in an ice cream bucket with a scoop.  We get the Gain scent we love, but not overpowering, and it stretches a box of detergent for a really, really long time.

You know, Sandra Lee went on to make a show called “Money Saving Meals”.  And for me, saving money was the reason I started making my own laundry detergent in the first place.  Saving money AND the fresh scent we know and love —

Score!

Have you ever tried making your own laundry detergent?  What were your results?