How to Make Laundry Soap (Liquid or Powder Recipe)

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Liquid or Powder Natural Laundry Detergent
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Making your own natural, homemade laundry detergent is one of the easiest parts of a transition to natural living. This natural laundry soap recipe a great way to save money on laundry detergent and is incredibly easy to make. This homemade laundry detergent post is an updated version of this recipe that addresses high efficiency washers and borax safety.

Why Switch to Natural Laundry Soap?

Conventional laundry detergent is loaded with chemicals like sulfates, fragrances, phenols and more. Many brands contain things like petroleum distillates, which are linked to cancer and lung disease. Fragrances in these detergents are made of a mix of harmful chemicals. (This is also why I make my own linen spray.)

Luckily, making your own laundry soap is an easy and fast process! You only need three basic ingredients to make either a powdered or liquid laundry soap:

DIY Laundry Soap Ingredients

  • Washing Soda (Arm and Hammer Brand available at most stores)Borax Powder
  • Borax (20 Mule Team Borax available at most grocery stores)
  • Bar Soap (Dr. Bronner’s,  Ivory, or other natural, unscented bar soap)

Washing Soda and Borax should be available at your local grocery store on the laundry aisle. Natural bar soaps are in the health, beauty, or organic sections of the store, or online. You can also add a couple tablespoons of baking soda to help freshen clothes.

Wonder What’s in These Ingredients?

Borax is a naturally occurring mineral made up of sodium, boron, oxygen, and water. It is an ingredient in most of the natural soaps available now (Seventh Generation, etc.) but it is much more inexpensive to make yourself. There are some concerns about the safety of Borax, but here’s why I feel comfortable using it, especially for laundry.

Washing Soda

Washing Soda, sometimes called sodium carbonate or soda ash, is made from common salt and limestone or found as natural deposits. If you can’t find this locally, you can make your own from plain baking soda with this tutorial. Here are some other great household uses for washing soda.

Dr. Bronner’s soaps are fair trade and made with vegetable castile soap and pure organic oils.

Liquid or Powder Natural Laundry Detergent
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4.10 from 66 votes

Natural Laundry Soap Recipe

This homemade laundry detergent recipe is easy and very inexpensive to make, plus you avoid the chemicals of conventional detergents.
Prep Time15 minutes
Total Time15 minutes
Yield: 2.5 cups
Author: Katie Wells

Materials

  • 1 bar soap (such as Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Bar Soap or homemade coconut oil soap)
  • 1 cup washing soda
  • 1 cup borax

Instructions

  • Grate the bar of soap or chop it in a food processor until finely ground.
  • In a large bowl, mix together the grated soap, washing soda, and borax.
  • Store in a sealed container.
  • To use: add 2 tablespoons to ¼ cup of soap per load of laundry.

Notes

See below for instructions on making a liquid version of this laundry soap.
Homemade liquid laundry soap recipe

How to Make Liquid Laundry Soap

  1. Grate one bar of soap with cheese grater or food processor.
  2. Put grated soap in pan with 2 quarts water and gradually heat, stirring constantly until soap is completely dissolved.
  3. Put 4.5 gallons of really hot tap water in a 5-gallon bucket (available for free in bakeries at grocery stores, just ask them) and stir in 2 cups of borax and 2 cups of Washing Soda until completely dissolved.
  4. Pour soap mixture from pan into 5-gallon bucket. Stir well.
  5. Cover and leave overnight.
  6. Shake or stir until smooth and pour into gallon jugs or other containers.
  7. Use 1/2 to 1 cup per load.

These recipes are also a great way to save money on laundry. By my calculations, I am saving over half on my laundry bill by switching

A Note About Soap vs. Detergent

All Natural Laundry Soap Recipes - two ways

As mentioned above, there is chemically a difference between soap and detergent. The advantage of conventional laundry detergents is that they are formulated to work specifically in washing machine environments. Many soaps are designed for skin and are not as strong. Some sources suggest that over time, natural soaps can leave buildup in washers.

I’ve found that while this recipe works well for me, it isn’t suitable for all water types and washer types. If you’ve used natural laundry soap and experienced clothes getting dingy, this may be the reason.

I’ve found one natural detergent that works brilliantly and can be used alone or in combination with homemade laundry soaps like this one. I often add 2-3 Tablespoons of Dr. Bronners Sal Suds per load as a natural detergent. Sal Suds gets out tough stains and odors and is still a natural product (though technically a detergent/surfactant and not a soap).

Don’t Want to Make it?

Homemade Natural Effective Laundry Soap Recipe

We usually make our own detergent, but for times when we are traveling or I haven’t had time to make it, I’ve found a few good brands of eco friendly laundry detergent that actually work (all received an “A” by the Environmental Working Group):

  • My Green Fills Laundry Detergent – Just a warning… after you try this laundry soap, you may be ruined for DIY forever. This is the best smelling non-toxic laundry detergent I’ve tried and it works well on tough stains and dirt. Similar to my favorite all-purpose cleaner, a huge bonus is their eco-friendly approach. The detergent comes concentrated in a small refill packet (hence the name) which you add to warm water in the provided bottle. Super smart!
  • 2 tablespoons Sal Suds + 1/4 cup Baking Soda or Washing Soda (highly effective and super simple!)
  • Ecover Zero Laundry Detergent– Works well, relatively cost effective and low/no risk of developmental or reproductive toxicity and cancer according to the EWG.
  • Emma Eco Me Detergent – Also rated well by the EWG and cleans up to 64  loads for $12. Good scents.
  • Planet Natural Detergent –  Relatively eco-friendly and cost effective at $9 for 32 loads.

Obviously, the most frugal option is to make your own, but these natural alternatives are a good choice if you aren’t able to make your own or don’t want to.

Have you tried making your own laundry detergent? What ingredients did you use?

This homemade laundry detergent recipe is easy and very inexpensive to make, plus you avoid the chemicals of conventional detergents.
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Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

906 responses to “How to Make Laundry Soap (Liquid or Powder Recipe)”

  1. Tiffany Avatar
    Tiffany

    Can you use the liquid castle soap instead of the bar soap?

  2. Akpone Fidelis Avatar
    Akpone Fidelis

    Thank you. I appreciate all contributions. I make bar soap with the following: PKO 14 litres, lye 7 litres and my product comes up good especially in HP. For further improvement, can I use borax to improve on the cleansen capability and what will be the meassurement based on the above recipe? Can borax be used in CP?

  3. Renee Avatar

    Is it safe to just store it in the bucket? If this recipe yields bout 5 gallons.

  4. Jade Avatar

    Hey there! Sorry if this has already been asked/answered, but is anyone using the liquid version for cloth diapers and/or cloth diaper PUL-style covers? Hows it doing? Does it damage the diapers at all? Does it get them clean enough? I really want to avoid commercial soaps. Thanks!

  5. Brianna Avatar
    Brianna

    I just (finally) finished making the liquid laundry soap. Yay! The last step makes it sound like the mixture should be thicker and more gooey–mine is definitely very watery. It looks like cloudy water. Is this right? Also, I have a new baby and everyone keeps saying to use special baby laundry detergent. This recipe would be even better than regular baby laundry detergent, right? Just want to confirm it is baby safe 🙂

    Thank you!

  6. Natalie Avatar

    Hello! I am making this tonight and a little confused as to why the POWDER recipe calls for 2 washing soda : 2 borax : 1 bar of soap and the LIQUID calls for 1 cup washing soda : 1 cup borax : 1 bar of soap. Am I missing something? When I looked through the comments, it seems that the liquid recipe calls for 2 cups of washing soda: 2 cups borax : 1 bar of soap. Sorry if this is redundant, but would like to know. Thank you for all that you do Wellness Mama! You are such an inspiration.

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar

      It really depends on how concentrated you want the soap to be. Either amount will work, and you can definitely use 2 cups of each for a stronger soap you can use less of.

  7. Bridget Avatar
    Bridget

    I have two questions regarding the laundry soap.
    1) Unfortunately I didn’t have my desirable container ready to put finished product in, so I used a glass jar and lid that I normally use for kitchen. Now I can’t get Fels smell out of the lid. Ideas?
    2 ) The Filmore recipe which they said came from you said to use 1-3 T per load. But I think I read on your site to use 1/3 – 1/4 cup per load (I don’t have it in front of me but I think I read this). So is the little 1 T too small of amount?

      1. Bridget Booth Avatar
        Bridget Booth

        Thanks. I see on the site though this sentence under the formula:
        “Use 1-2 tablespoons per load. Add 1 tablespoon of Oxygen booster if needed… I use this on white loads.”
        So maybe it needs changed?
        Any words of,wisdom in getting the Fels Naptha smell out of my canning jar lid?
        I hope it doesn’t stink up my food processor too when I grate it.
        I have two more bars of Fels to go,through. Then I’ll switch to something else. I know a lady with goats who makes goat milk soap would that work in the recipe?
        I looked,into making my own coconut soap with the lye but know I’ll never do it.

  8. Cherise Avatar
    Cherise

    Just done some more research and washing soda is the same as soda crystals which are readily available and very cheap at just 69pence!

  9. Cherise Avatar
    Cherise

    Ok so I have baking soda which I want to bake to make washing soda. I’m in the uk and washing soda is not sold here. The article says bake at 400 but my oven only goes up to 225? Do I need to convert this over? Please help!

  10. PMaria Avatar

    Hello, I was wondering do I have to use warm/ hot water to wash my clothes if I use the powdered version? On the first wash I used cold water and it came out with small bits of the soap still in tact which makes sense but I like washing our clothes in cold water. Should I use the liquid recipe instead next time so I can wash in cold water? What do you all do?

  11. Pam Harvey Avatar
    Pam Harvey

    I was just wondering why if you use commercial laundry detergent, the Borax and washing soda boxes say to use 1/2 cup with your detergent, but when you make your own powdered detergent you only use 1-3 Tbls of the 3 ingredient mix?

  12. marisa Avatar

    Hello- I tried making the liquid soap and it solidified overnight. 🙁 I did opt to add the additional liquid castile soap and wondering if this is the problem. PLEASE help me fix it as I do NOT want this to be a lost cause!! Thanks!!

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar

      Hmm. I’ve never had that happen before either. I might try adding a little more tap water and stirring it in and seeing if it remains liquid for you then. Hope it helps!

  13. Diana Avatar

    Hi Katie! Thanks so much for the recipe. I was wondering if it is gentle enough/safe to use on baby clothes.

  14. Brittany Avatar

    Came upon this recipe and thought I’d share what I use! Its a system that hooks up to your washing machine. It uses activated oxygen to clean your clothes. No hot water or laundry detergent! I love it so much! Definitely worth the investment 🙂 https://www.ecowasher.com/

  15. Kiley Avatar

    I wondered why all the recipes I see ask for you to grate a bar of soap (ether in a food processor or by hand). I figured I would just buy soap flakes. Are they not the same thing?

    Thanks for your help and advice – looking forward to trying this.

  16. Julie Avatar

    Bar soap broke my food processor and grating nearly broke my arm! Any help/suggestions?

  17. Katherine Avatar
    Katherine

    Hi I recently made your DIY laundry powered and I believe I got burned from it. I thought it was a bug bite but I have blisters and it’s extremely sensitive if not painful. So far out of the tens of loads it’s only happened once but now my son is showing sign of irritation and redness. He has little tiny random bumps on his chest which I had assumed where just from switching detergent as they were barely noticeable and didn’t seem to bother him. I added a little more baking soda to the recipe as we have one of the hardest water around. Did I do something wrong? I’m going to rewash all my son’s clothes with deft just incase.

4.10 from 66 votes (62 ratings without comment)

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