Protect Your Family: Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

Protect your family from bad chemicals with easy-to-make laundry detergent.

WHY?: . . . A few of my kids have displayed sensitive skin. Even at a young age, we started purchasing sensitive skin laundry detergent with no dyes. Over the years, I’ve read articles about the harmful chemicals in laundry detergent and laundry products. It seemed logical that buying the sensitive skin formula for laundry detergent had to help. However, recently, I’ve become concerned about using any store-bought laundry detergent and not just for sensitive skin issues. For example, one academic study titled Toxicities of Laundry Products – Review of the Evidence concluded that “data to date finds the overwhelming weight of the evidence supports the contention that many laundry and household cleaning products add significant elevated risk to humans in the domains of reproductive/fertility risk; respiratory/pulmonary (asthma, cardiopulmonary disease) risk; neurological/cognitive (ADHD, autism) risk; metabolic (diabetes, obesity) risk; and oncogenic (cancer) risk” (Kaniklidis, 2022). Another older article that I recently came across states there are carcinogenic emissions through dryer vents with scented laundry products (Hickey, 2011). I’m no scientist, but it seems logical that if bad chemicals are being emitted from the dryer vent, wouldn’t it also be in the clothes? I’ve also read articles that discuss the potential impact of hormones, particularly the estrogen impact on boys, which were concerning to me. Regardless, these types of articles jolted me into making my own laundry detergent, and I’m happy to report I actually PREFER my homemade laundry detergent to store-bought.

THE BEST HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT! I tried several different recipes that I found online but came to love this one the best (Our Simple Graces, 2024). It gives a fresh, clean smell. I have found it to work on all kinds of loads. I just up the amount I put in for an extra dirty load by about ½-1T extra detergent.

HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT

4 cups Borax
4 cups Washing Soda (also called Soda Ash)
2 – 5oz. unscented Castile Bar of Soap (– grated)
2 T = for regular-sized load
Directions: Scoop out 2T for a normal load and sprinkle it on the bottom of the washing machine.
Storage. The recipe fits perfectly into my airtight glass jar. I found my jar at Wal-Mart for about $15. Below is a link to a jar similar to mine.
Small measuring cup. I use one like the one below to measure and pour in our washing machine.

I use a grater attachment on my mixing bowl to grate the soap (see below for example), but you can grate the soap using a hand grater as well.

I order all of my ingredients from AzureStandard.com, and they deliver to my area once a month. However, life is BUSY, and if you want the convenience of ordering from Amazon, I have included the direct links to everything you’ll need. Just click on the photos below if interested. You still get the same low price at Amazon, but they may compensate me a small amount if you use the links I provided. Thank you for supporting our blog/research in this way.

Happy laundering! It is such a great feeling to know that your laundry soap is simply cleaning without any of the dangerous chemicals that we want to avoid. I hope this idea will help your family and you’ll love it as much as we do.

Blessings,

Jeanne

References

Hickey, Hannah. (August, 2011). Scented laundry products emit hazardous chemicals through dryer vents. https://www.washington.edu/news/2011/08/24/scented-laundry-products-emit-hazardous-chemicals-through-dryer-vents/

Kaniklidis, Constantine. (Jan. 2022). Toxicities of Laundry Products – Review of the Evidence. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351494142_Toxicities_of_Laundry_Products_-_Review_of_the_Evidence

Our Simple Graces. (2024) Simple Natural Laundry Detergent Recipe. Our Simple Graces.com