DIY powder laundry detergent

My life has changed drastically over the past two-and-a-half years. I went from a full time MRI tech and mom to just a stay at home mom. I winced when I typed the word "just". Being a full time mom to two young children, one with special needs, is not "just" something you do. It's a lot of work. Fortunately, it is totally worth every ounce of effort. Unfortunately, the pay is non-existent. Therefore, it's important to cut corners anywhere possible. 

Switching from two full time incomes to one is no joke. We made many, many changes to our lifestyle. We  traded in a car for a different one, we refinanced our house, we got Ooma and dropped Vonage, and *gasp* we got rid of cable. Oh the humanity! The looks on people's faces when I say I can't watch that show because I don't get that channel is hysterical. If you got rid of your television, I promise you, you'd survive to see another day. Yet, even with all these changes, things were still financially tight. Time to get creative with tightening up the ole purse strings. Previously, I'd posted about making your own baby wipes. Now it's time to talk laundry. 

I'd found a laundry list (tee-hee!) of DIY liquid laundry detergents on Pinterest but nothing really for powder. I was more interested in powder since I have a rather small laundry room and don't have the capacity to store gallon jugs of detergent. So, I read through the other posts, found the common ingredients, tried out a few batches, made a few tweaks, and voila, I have a recipe I love. It works brilliantly for all of our laundry needs.

Ingredients:

1. Borax

2. Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (very different than baking soda)

3. Fels-Naptha Bar Soap

Step #1

Unwrap the bar of Fels-Naptha and grate it on the fine side of a cheese grater. Place a bowl underneath to catch the shavings.

Step #2

Once you're done grating the soap, measure out 1 cup of Washing Soda and add it into the bowl.

Step #3

Measure out 1 cup of Borax. If it has clumps make sure to break them up with a fork before adding it into the mix.

Step#4

Mix all 3 ingredients together.

Step #5

Transfer the mix into an airtight container for storage.

I measured it out and I will get 40 loads of laundry from this mix. I have a spoon that I leave on top of it to measure for each load. It's just a hair over a tablespoon of powder per load. If a particular load is very soiled, use more. A lighter load, use less. Use your own judgement.

I also did the math out for you (you're welcome.)

So...

At Walmart,

A box of Borax was about $3.00

A box of Washing Soda was also about $3.00

And a bar of Fels-Naptha was $1.00

We'll get 6.8 uses from the box of Washing Soda equalling $0.44/batch

We'll get 9.5 uses from the box of Borax equalling $0.31/batch

We'll get one use per bar of soap equalling $1.00/batch

1 batch = $1.75 divided by 40 uses = $0.04/load.  Wowza!

At Walmart,

Tide liquid detergent is $12 for 52 loads equalling $0.23/load.

4 cents versus 23 cents may not seem like much but lets do the math for 52 loads, just one purchase of detergent. Tide is $12 remember? Well, the total cost for DIY is $2.08. That's a savings of $10 per bottle. With the way we do laundry in this house it's a substantial savings over the course of a year! 

Leave me a comment if you try it! I'd love to hear what you think.