Making your own laundry powder is easy and unbelievably cheap! This is a highly customizable soap powder. You can make a lot or a little.

First, decide how much you want to make. I’d recommend starting with a small amount, to be sure you like it. If you don’t, all of the other “ingredients” can be used for other purposes.

If you’re starting with a small amount, get a coffee can or a large glass pickle jar or similar container. If you’d like to make a large amount, use a five gallon bucket with a lid.

Ingredients:

• Borax
• Washing Soda
• Baking Soda
• Grated Soap (Ivory or Octagon work well)
• Oxyclean (I buy the generic version at the Dollar Store in a 20-oz container)
• Essential Oil (tea tree, lavender, and orange are all nice. Be sure to use essential oil, not a fragrance oil!)

The beauty of this “recipe” is that you don’t have to use all of the ingredients. Can’t find Washing Soda? Leave it out. Don’t feel like grating soap? Leave it out. My current batch of laundry “soap” is actually soapless… it’s borax, sodas, oxyclean and tea tree oil. I think it cleans better without the soap, but that may just be me!

WARNINGS: These chemicals are irritants. With normal precautions, they present little danger; however you should take care to keep them out of your eyes, avoid breathing powders, never ingest, and keep out of reach of children and pets. Wear gloves if direct contact with borax irritates your skin. May not be safe for all fabrics and articles. Oxyclean may alter color; spot test if in doubt. (That said, I’ve machine washed wool and silk and everything I’ve washed has stayed the same color.) If you’ve used oxyclean, do not mix product with chlorine bleach.

To mix a small batch homemade laundry soap, fill your container 1/3 with borax, 1/3 with baking soda, 1/3 with washing soda, and then add approximately 7 ounces of Oxyclean (about 1/3 of a 20-oz can). Grate up to 1/3 of a bar of soap, depending on how much you like (or just leave it out). Add 7-10 total drops of essential oil. Use an old wooden spoon that you’ve reserved for this purpose to stir it up, or if there’s enough space in your container, put the lid on and shake well.

To make a large batch of homemade laundry soap, just dump the whole box of borax, the whole box of washing soda, the whole (large) box of baking soda, and the whole container of oxyclean into a large bucket with a lid. Grate a full bar of soap and add that to the mix. Add 20 (total) drops of essential oil. Stir or shake it up thoroughly.

You do NOT have to be exact with proportions, except you should not use too much essential oil as it could cause staining or even cause a fire when used in large amounts.

To use your environmentally friendly laundry soap, use a small scoop (an old coffee scoop is perfect). A scoop and a half does most normal sized loads; use two scoops for heavily stained or smelly laundry. It works equally well in hot and cold water, however occasionally you will end up with undissolved product on your clothes (this probably has to do with water hardness). If this happens, simply run the clothes through another rinse cycle. (It happens to me perhaps every tenth load). If it’s an ongoing problem, try dissolving the soap in a cup of hot (not boiling) water. Never leave powder mixed with water in a closed container, the oxyclean could make the container rupture.

Really dirty or smelly things can be soaked for several hours. Oxyclean loses effectiveness after six hours.

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