How To Use Laundry Bar Soap and Make Your Own Detergent
I’m going to describe how to use a natural laundry bar soap to do laundry, and, how to make your own laundry detergent with 3 natural ingredients.
You can make your own natural, non-toxic, homemade laundry soap and save money!
There are lots of laundry soap recipes online, many of them nearly identical with slight variations. I have found that for doing laundry, using just the following three basic ingredients will provide a good homemade recipe blend to get your clothes sparkling clean… for cheap!
We first made this laundry soap recipe years ago. The results were excellent. And as a bonus, it costs less than most store-bought laundry detergents.
Laundry Soap Recipe Ingredients
Borax
Borax is a natural mineral, sodium borate. There are many beneficial uses for Borax.
It’s in laundry booster, certain hand soaps, and in some toothpastes. It’s branded as ’20 Mule Team Borax’ (pure borax). Buried deep in the Mojave Desert is one of the biggest and richest deposits of borax on the planet located in Boron, California.
[ Read: What You Can Do With Borax ]
Washing Soda
Washing Soda is also known as sodium carbonate, or soda ash. It is produced in large quantities from common salt. In domestic use, it is used as a water softener during laundry, and it effectively removes oil and grease stains. It is not toxic, and does not contain harmful detergents or chemicals.
Laundry Bar Soap
Old fashioned laundry soap bars. You can still get it. Most common brands are ZOTE, Fels Naptha, or Octagon. All purpose bar soaps for laundry.
Homemade Laundry Soap Recipe Instructions
2 cups of shaved bar soap (Ivory, ZOTE, Fels-Naptha, Octagon)
1 cup of Borax
1 cup of Washing Soda
Do you want to set yourself up with laundry soap ingredients to last you a very long time for prepping & preparedness? That’s what we did (view on amzn).
Shave the bar soap with a hand shredder/grater. Then combine all ingredients into a food processor. Mix until well blended together into powder.
You can mix it in a bucket by hand, or in a food processor.
The Borax and Washing Soda will mix easily by hand. It is the shaved bar soap that will be more difficult to blend into fine particles. The more powdery, the better the blend. Grate the bar soap as fine as possible. Having said that, it will all dissolve into the laundry water regardless. It will dissolve more readily the finer it is. The formula is still the same.
About 1 minute in a food processor (ingredients will scuff the plastic – just saying…).
It seems too good to be true, but that’s it!
Use 1 tablespoon of this homemade laundry detergent per load. Up to 2 for a heavy load.
The cost is only pennies per load!
Tip: You can use white vinegar (1/4 cup) per load for softener.
How-to Use Laundry Bar Soap
You can use it as a spot treatment. use it “dry” and just rub it on the stained portion of clothing as a pre-stain treatment. Same way you would use the store-bought (more expensive) rub-on stain treatments.
Use it for delicates or hand washable items. Utilize a clean sink or laundry tub / bucket filled with warm water. Lather up the laundry bar soap in your hand (just like ordinary soap). Work the soap and suds into the fabric. Wash by hand.
Technically you don’t need the other two ingredients mentioned above (borax and washing soda) if you’re using specific made laundry bar soap such as Fels Naptha or Zote due to their formulation. However for best results, I do recommend it.
[ Read: Best Washboard For Laundry | How-to Wash Clothes ]
[ Read: 20+ Other Uses For Soap ]
