Homemade Laundry Detergent

Bombsniffer at work.

Huzza! My materials are here!

The story behind this one isn't long, but it is boring.

Homemade laundry detergent may be something you think gold buyers who are waiting for the tribulation do, but I do it too. I mean, now I do.

When I lived in the Ktown near my folks, I usually did my laundry at my parents' house*. They have a fancy HE washer that really cleans clothes, and so when I would purchase laundry detergent I would try to get something that more than I liked. Like Tide or something. I would use coupons and deals and all that, and I would haul it there in my car. When we moved here, I no longer had a car, but I did have a washer.


I had a stash of detergent when I first moved here that was given to me by people or that I found for free or whatever. I also had a dozen detergent samples from Gain and Tide that I had saved up. This was a smart move on my part (natch) because right before we left for Christmas, we were down to the dregs of our stash.**

This, added to the fact that I have no desire to haul a big ol' box or jug of detergent to my house, prompted me to look for alternatives. Obviously, I had heard of making it from scratch before. We had pretty hard water where we used to live, and detergent that didn't have brighteners added (i.e., anything but manufactured detergent) would make our whites look dingy.

Also, I didn't really want to make it.

I'm limited on good methods of acquiring laundry detergent at an affordable price. The cheapest brands here (like Sun) are essentially water and cost about 8 cents a load. Tide powder (bought in fat, heavy bulk) costs 13 cents, and All or Arm and Hammer liquids cost about 9.5 cents a load.

Those prices are definitely reasonable.

But in accordance with my aggressive debt repayment plan**, I decided to examine my options. Thus the dry powdered version of homemade detergent was born. I mean I didn't birth it. It was birthed by other bloggers.

Anyways, we have soft water, I have a large quantity of Ivory soap (got for free, made it all the way up north) and several Amazon gift cards for Christmas***.

I'll keep you posted.

*Technically, I did have a washer. A WONDERWASHER.
**Actually, the first few loads of our laundry were free because there were some discarded bottles in the laundry room, left there by the previous tenant. I sat them on their heads, filled them up with water, all that stuff. I got like 7 loads out of that business.
***I'll explain in a later post, but it's mostly crazy talk.
****Thanks mom and dad! Also B&A!