Has anyone tried making it before? Supposedly it's cheaper to make than buying it in the store. I might experiment with this over the weekend.

http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/

4/22/2011 1:09:54 PM

There's frugal, there's cheap, there's miserly, there's niggardly, there's a Shylock, and then there's people who make their own laundry detergent.

[Edited on April 22, 2011 at 1:11 PM. Reason : x]

4/22/2011 1:10:50 PM

all free & clear with oxiclean FTW

it's cheap enough

4/22/2011 1:13:00 PM

Is it a penny a load? That's what these sites claim homemade detergent costs per load.

4/22/2011 1:14:06 PM

I keep on planning to make it, but I still have 4 bottles of arm and hammer left I need to use first.

4/22/2011 1:19:58 PM

Quote :

"Is it a penny a load?"

Sarose?

4/22/2011 1:21:59 PM

I make my own.

I got my recipe from the Duggars

http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html

4/22/2011 1:23:30 PM

Quote :

"Is it a penny a load?"

you might want to factor your time in there as well.

unless your time is essentially worthless...

4/22/2011 1:24:20 PM

It doesn't take a lot of time to mix three ingredients together in a bucket. It's not like I have to mine the sodium carbonate myself

4/22/2011 1:49:18 PM

I will say this about the homemade laundry detergent:

You must shake up the laundry detergent before each use. It starts to get clumpy and w/o shaking, it has the consistency of semen . It also has no smell so if you want, you can add scented oils and stuff. Right after I made my first batch of laundry detergent, I got free Purex detergent and now I mix just a little bit of Purex in with my laundry detergent to give it a little scent.

4/22/2011 2:29:12 PM

Quote :

"Is it a penny a load? That's what these sites claim homemade detergent costs per load."

not even close...but it works extremely well and it doesn't irritate my skin, which a lot of detergent does

also, we don't do but 5-6 loads of laundry per month (including when we wash the dog beds and towels used when bathing them), and i use half the recommended amount of detergent per my samsung front-load HE washer's instructions

4/22/2011 2:41:29 PM

go to bulk super store. buy giant thing of all. profit.

seriously. I use like one of them a year. and any stains i get in my clothes come out, and I work in a restaurant where I am constantly covered in grease/icecream/etc

4/22/2011 2:43:06 PM

Only store detergent we can use is Purex. Stupid skin allergies

4/22/2011 2:44:30 PM

i'm sure purex can be sold in bulk too, but all has a white bottle (free and clear, brought up previously) that is hypo-allergenic

4/22/2011 2:46:24 PM

My wife and I make our own. And by that, I mean she makes our own.

Borax, soap (Dove or Ivory), Arm & Hammer Washing Soap.

It is INSANELY cheaper.

4/22/2011 2:58:54 PM

Quote :

"I make my own. I got my recipe from the Duggars http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html"

We make the Duggar recipe (liquid) as well. It works great, it's cheap, and it doesn't have a scent if you don't add one. Really highly recommend it.

4/22/2011 2:59:15 PM

I also used to make my own dishwasher detergent that was just washing soda and borax

I would still be making it but I was able to get 17 boxes of Electrasol for free

4/22/2011 3:02:37 PM

Where do you guys buy the supplies? Walmart?

4/22/2011 3:10:23 PM

I bought a 10 gallon paint bucket at Home Depot

When I first started making my detergent, I could not find Arm and Hammer Washing Soda anywhere. I had to order it online but now HT, Kroger etc all carry it.

You can get all the supplies (washing soda, borax, laundry soap bar-i used fels naptha) at HT, Kroger etc

4/22/2011 3:13:52 PM

Sweet

4/22/2011 3:16:45 PM

the stuff is probably cheapest @ Kroger or Food Lion

I just looked up prices using HT's "express lane" online

Fels Naptha is $1.39/bar
Arm and Hammer Washing Soda is $2.95
Borax is $4.75

4/22/2011 3:19:57 PM

The Fels Naptha bar is also usually available at like a Home Depot or Lowes too.

4/22/2011 3:33:30 PM

If you have skin allergies be careful. Ambrosia1231 used to make laundry detergent, and I had to wash my undies in something else because the homemade stuff was causing me to get girly infections.

4/24/2011 9:12:39 PM

I lol'd at this line

Quote :

"There's frugal, there's cheap, there's miserly, there's niggardly, there's a Shylock, and then there's people who make their own laundry detergent."

4/24/2011 9:18:51 PM

Quote :

"You must shake up the laundry detergent before each use. It starts to get clumpy and w/o shaking, it has the consistency of semen "

ambrosia1231 made a big batch and this is exactly what happened. It would work, so long as you used it and worked with it, but it wasn't fun to use or handle

4/24/2011 9:21:50 PM

My mother makes it all the time. She claims to have done the math and its <= $0.01 per load. I'll try to dig up recipe. We got like 10 bottles of laundry detergent from our wedding shower, so we still going through all that. Haven't needed any yet. But when we do, that's what we'll be making.

Oh, and yes, you do have to shake it up before you use it. Borax, Fels Naptha, and something else are the main ingredients in mom's stuff. I'll take a pic for you:

This is what our stuff looks like unshaken (it's been sitting for several months):
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll38/sprocket_2008/0424112316.jpg

This is what it looks like after I shook it up for a few seconds:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll38/sprocket_2008/0424112316a.jpg

[Edited on April 24, 2011 at 11:21 PM. Reason : pics]

4/24/2011 11:12:30 PM

i bet if the coopers did this, brad would be in jail by now.

4/24/2011 11:23:02 PM

I ended up at Walmart today and totally forgot to buy this stuff d'oh.

4/24/2011 11:23:27 PM