Ultimate Guide to Making DIY Laundry Soap: Get Rid of Chemicals

INSIDE: Tried of spending ridiculous amounts of money on laundry soap? Come check out the ultimate guide to making DIY laundry soap and get rid of chemicals!

At this point, you know how I feel about laundry.

It’s sucking my will to live!

However, my new laundry room does help perk up this task.

Wanna know more about that remodel? Check out this post.

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The other day, I was doing a price comparison for cable and it got me thinking…what else do we waste money on?

Laundry soap!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel like we spend a small fortune on this stuff.

Currently, we use TIDE. Why? Because it cleans clothes the best? It is on all the “lists” of best laundry soap. Coincidentally, it is also the most expensive.

I normally buy Tide from Target for $17.99. This size claims to be able to wash 89 loads of laundry. I use the liquid because a really smart dermatology nurse told me it’s better for the skin; you don’t have to worry about the grit from the powder.

That equals $0.20 per load. I guess that’s not HORRIBLE right???

BUT – the chemicals???? YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I decided I would give DIY laundry soap a try. There are several motivating factors here….I like DIY’ing, my daughter loves to make things with me, I like the idea of saving money, and chemicals are in the laundry soap. BOOOOO!!!!!!!

I found a recipe and tweaked it to my liking. Here is the price break down:

• Super Washing soda – 55oz for $4.17
• Baking Soda – 5 lbs for $3.08
• Castile Soap – 33.6oz for $15.95
• Plus we will add essential oils – $10 for 10 mL – so we will say $1 per gallon
• Total = $24.20

How many GALLONS can I make with these supplies?

Using my mastery math skills – I consulted with a certain 10 year old math genius – I figured out that:

• 55 ounces of Washing soda holds 7 – 1/4 cups
• 5 pounds of baking soda holds 9.5 cups – since the recipe takes 1/4 cups, that leaves 38 – 1/4 cups
• 33 ounces of castile soap holds 11 – 6 tablespoons (3 oz per 6 tbsp)
• Essential oils will need 20 drops = 1mL – 10 gallons per scent

With these supplies, I can make 7 GALLONS of DIY laundry soap AND have some ingredients leftover to make more; only buying the washing soda next time.

Here is the recipe after I tweaked it:

Ingredients –

• 1/4 cup Super Washing Soda
• 1/4 cup Baking Soda
• 6 tablespoons Castile soap
• 10 drops lemon essential oil
• 10 drops tea tree essential oil

Directions –

1. Place the washing soda in the bottom of a bowl, cover with HOT tap water. Mix until it dissolves completely.
2. Add the baking soda. It will clump so try to dissolve it as much as possible.
3. Pour that into your gallon jar/jug – I used this one.
4. Add about 14 cups of HOT tap water to your jar.
5. Stir until soda is completely dissolved.
6. Add your essential oils.
7. Add your castile soap.
8. Stir until well combined.
9. Poof!!! Go enjoy your magical DIY laundry soap!

***TIP – I added the oils before the soap, to help the oil mix with the water better.

****UPDATE: the glass jar was not the best idea – the top started to rust about 5 months into the journey – so we switched to a plastic version. I didn’t want something huge (keeping with the gallon option) and I realized that most of these are drink dispensers, so we went with this one.

Back to the price thing –

I have an HE washer so I only need to use 1/4 cup per load (normal washers need 1/3-1/2 cup).

16 cups in a gallon – I only need 1/4 cup = 64 loads of laundry per gallon.

7 gallons = 448 loads of laundry for $24.20

WHOA!!!!!!!!!!! That is about $0.05 per load

BUT does it work?

Well, only one way to find out…..

I took this towel (and a bunch of other towels that had been used to dry off the dogs after their bath) and threw them in the washer.

I added 1/4 cup of detergent to the soap dispenser in my washer and added vinegar to the “bleach” dispenser. Adding vinegar to all towels makes them fluffier and removes any gross smells that end up on towels.

I dried the towels and this is the end product:

What do you know….it DOES work.

I decided to try it on my laundry for a week and see if it was true! And I am completely satisfied.

**However, I recommend keeping the liquid warm, if you can. It separates in a strange way….still works the same, just looks weird.

Happy DIY’ing,

Do you use DIY laundry soap? How do you make yours? Comment below and let us know if you have a better way!