The Easiest, Least Expensive, and Best Performing Recipes for Natural Laundry Solutions

Want a more natural solution while still keeping your clothes clean, soft and smelling great? Try these easy recipes! These soaps have fewer toxins as well as being less expensive, while still being easy to make and use!
 

Easiest Homemade Laundry Soap

1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax
1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 (3 lb) Container of OxiClean 1 (5 lb.) Bag of Baking Soda 2 (5.5 oz) Bars of Soap (Kirk’s Original Coco Castile®, Pure & Natural®, Fels-Naptha®,, ZOTE®, a handcrafted soap, or your own handmade natural soap.

1. Grate the bars of soap. There are several ways to do this. You can use a cheese grater and grate it by hand. You can use a food processor; but if you use a softer soap (like Zote) with this method, I recommend putting some baking soda in the container first so that the soap will separate after it is grated and not clump together again. Pulse, adding enough baking soda to keep it loose, until it becomes a clumpy powder.

2. Take a large, heavy duty black garbage bag. Pour the boxes above into the bag, adding the grated soap powder last. Close the bag securely and roll the bag back and forth and from side to side to mix thoroughly.

3. Let the bag sit for at least ten minutes so that the powder settles before opening. Place a bottom corner of the bag in the bottom of a 3 to 5 gallon bucket. Cut across the bottom corner and let the soap powder empty into the bucket Empty it slowly to avoid having a cloud of soap powder arise as you empty it. Wear a mask if necessary to avoid inhaling the soap dust.

4. If you want to further enhance your detergent, you can add about 10 drops of essential oil (orange, lavender, or another of your choosing) to each ¼ recipe and run it through the food processor again to refine it more, so that it will dissolve more easily and have a more pleasing scent for your wash.

5. Use 1 tablespoon for small loads, 2-3 tablespoons of soap powder for larger or dirtier loads. For top loading machines, dissolve the powder in hot water before adding to your laundry dispenser. This recipe does not produce a lot of suds, so it works in HE washers.

6. If you don’t have room for the entire bucket in your laundry room, you can put a smaller amount into a smaller container and include your scoop (glass jars or empty ice cream buckets with a tight fitting lid).
    

Natural Laundry Softener

Use your favorite scent: orange, lemon, lavender, and peppermint are often favorite choices, for their fresh scent, but go where your imagination takes you!

1. Add ¼ cup white vinegar to your softener dispenser. You may add 20-30 drops of essential oils to a gallon of vinegar or put in 2-3 drops of essential oils in each load (which I like, because it allows you to choose your scent with each load!). The vinegar will help to eliminate the soap residue from your clothes and is said to wash some of the hard water deposits your machine, as a bonus!

2. Mix 2 cups Epsom salts or coarse seal salts with 20-30 drops of essential oils in a sealable glass jar. Add ½ cup of baking soda and shake to mix. Use 2-3 tablespoons to each load, letting it dissolve in the water before running your load.

3. Mix 5 cups hot water, 1-1/2 cup hair conditioner (your favorite scent; use a natural conditioner to keep the ingredients pure), 3 cups white vinegar. Mix the hot water into the hair conditioner until it’s well dissolved, then add the white vinegar. Fill the softener dispenser or add ¼ (small load) to ½ cup (large loads) just before the rinse cycle.
    

Dryer Sheets

1. Cut clean white cotton fabric into swatches about 5-6 inches square. Keep in a basket by your dryer.

2. Keep a spray bottle full of either softener formula 1 or 3 above by the basket. When you throw a load into the dryer, squirt the solution on a cloth and throw in the dryer as you start your load.