I had been meaning to do it for a long time, and finally I got the supplies and made up a batch of homemade laundry powder. I must say that I am pretty satisfied with the outcome! I found quite a few recipes both online and within the books I own, all seeming the have the same main components but with different ratios. I finally settled on one for which the “recipe” is
3 Cups of Washing Soda ~3 Cups of Borax ~3 grated bars of fels naptha soap
ummm grating that bar of soap was horrible! Horrible! so I only used one! Ha! and I think it still works splendidly. Perhaps next time I will chop ‘em up a bit then put them through a whirl in my new food processor? or maybe that’s a bad idea. Anyhoo, I mixed all the stuff up in a snappy lidded plastic food storage bin and when I do laundry I put in 1/4 Cup for a full load and 1/8 Cup for a small load. When the clothes are wet they have a nice soapy fragrance imparted by the fels naptha, but after the dryer I really can’t smell anything but freshness…So fresh and so clean.. clean.
I have a HE frontload and this stuff works fine and dandy. I also put in about a 1/4 Cup of white vinegar into the fabric softener dispenser and I have no complaints. If Fels Naptha soap is just too hard to find, I’ve read you can replace it with an ivory soap bar. You can also add a bit of essential oil to your mix to add a little fragrance. Next time I might do this and add some sweet orange essential oil and see how it goes.
Note: originally I was going to make a liquid or gel like detergent but figured the powder would be a little easier to store and dispense, but I think at some point I will make the liquid version just to compare.
