Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

By and far, the most frequent term to get to my site has to do with making your own laundry detergent. I think people are more interested in more recipes to make the detergent. Since I made that post, I have found a couple more ideas on doing it.

• How to Make Laundry Detergent from Keeping the Home (no washing soda needed)
• Making Your Own Laundry Detergent: A Detailed Visual Guide from The Simple Dollar

Do I have to use a dishwasher rinse aid if my dishwasher has a dispenser?

The easy answer to this is no. The dispenser is there for your convenience and doesn’t have to be used. If you find your dishes are gritty or spotty, then by all means use a rinse aid. You can either buy a commercial brand or fill it with vinegar. And if you don’t have a dispenser at all, you can buy a rinse aid that hangs in your dishwasher.

No money and in need of groceries

This is a situation I have found myself in too many times. First of all, if you have absolutely no money at all, you’re going to have to ask for help. Family, friends, church, or food banks will be happy to help you. Look into public assistance if you have to until you can get back on your feet.

If your budget is limited, I can give you a resource that saved my life: $45 Emergency Menu by Hillbilly Housewife. It’s based on making everything from scratch, which is a lot of work, but when you have no money, it is invaluable. In the process I’ve learned to eat healthier and learned to make so many things in the kitchen.

how to make slim with glue and borax

I saw “slim” appear many times and couldn’t figure out what it was. I searched wikipedia thinking it might be a foreign term. I searched urban dictionary thinking it might be slang. I was really at a loss, so I decided to Google it myself. That’s when I realized I was an idiot. It’s a typo and supposed to be: How to Make SLIME with glue and borax. Without further ado:

• Homemade Slime
• Blennophobia – Fear of Slime

And there you have it. Hopefully someone will be a little less disappointed this week.

The instructions are pretty simple.  You’re supposed to get a roll of paper towels, take the cardboard out of the center, cut the roll in half and then put the roll into a plastic container of some sort.  Then you add the disinfectant of your choice and pull the towels from the center of the roll and it’s just like the containers from the store.

Ok, let’s break this process down so the world can see what went wrong every step of the way:

1. Take the cardboard roll out of the center of the roll.  I’ve yet to find instructions that mention that manufacturers GLUE the cardboard to the paper towels.  So, I expected the sucker would slide right out and it didn’t.  I ran a long thin knife down inside to pull it loose and it really chewed up the paper towels.  Nothing fatal though because I could just throw away the first few that I pulled out.  After performing major surgery, the cardboard roll came out.
2. Cut the roll in half.  Again, nobody mentions that you need a hack saw to cut this thing in half.  I tried a regular kitchen knife – didn’t cut.  Tried scissors – didn’t cut.  So I finally got out a bread knife which seriously resembles a hacksaw and it worked.  However, it also made confetti out of the paper towels as I cut and I was left with pile of paper towel dust when I was done.  Definitely not pretty, but it got the job done.
3. Put the half roll into a plastic container.  I looked at the store for a plastic container that would hold half a roll of paper towels but really couldn’t find anything.  I decided to use something I already had at home.  This was probably the best part of the whole project.  If you want to get REALLY fancy, you can even drill a hole in the lid so they dispense real pretty.  I opted not to do this and instead have to remove the lid every time.
4. Add the disinfectant of your choice.  I used 1 part Lysol kitchen cleaner to 2 parts water.  I think it’s breaking down the paper towels though because they feel weaker and weaker each time I use them.  I probably should have used more water…but then would they really disinfect?
5. Pull from the center and wipe.  The paper towels come out of the center and my husband was very amused that I was able to make something like this.  However, I feel like the wipes are getting thinner by the day and there is still some paper towel dust in there.

Will I Do It Again?

Nope.

A Better Alternative?

Buy a bottle of disinfectant, spray it on the surface and use a paper towel to wipe   Seriously though, I heard this on a show the other day and it is a great idea.  Bleach is one of the best and cheapest disinfectants there is.  Fill up your sink with bleach and water (read the instructions for the proper dilution).  While the water is in there, throw your sponge, scrub brush and anything else that needs disinfecting.  You can even use a white towel dipped in the water to wipe down your counters.   The smell is not the greatest and you’ll need to ventilate, but you can have peace of mind knowing that you’re kitchen is clean and that you’re saving some bucks in the process.

And you won’t have paper towel dust everywhere.

To Make Your Own Dishwasher Detergent

You’re going to need:

• Baking Soda
• Borax
• Container to store it in
• Scoop

You can make the batch up in any size you’d like, just mix equal parts baking soda and borax. Some other recipes call for Koolaid but I opted not to add it. Use 1-2 Tablespoons of your mixture (less for soft water, more for hard water). A very important consideration for this is to make sure you’re using a rinse aid. Again – do it yourself! You can fill up your rinse aid dispenser with vinegar or add a bit to the rinse cycle.

My Verdict on Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Indeed it was easy to make – it took a whopping minute to measure and mix. Definitely inexpensive – two positives so far. Now, here’s the killer! My dishes didn’t come out clean and they had this nasty powdery residue left on them. I even ran them through an additional rinse cycle and the gritty mess wouldn’t come off. Long story short, some of my dishes still had grit after several wash cycles so I had to wash them by hand. I investigated this on the internet and some people said that maybe I used too much detergent, so I cut back. Better, but still not acceptable. Some people say it was the rinse agent, so I added extra vinegar to the rinse cycle. Again, better, but there was still too much grit on them for my taste (no pun intended because you could actually TASTE the baking soda on the glasses!).

This little experiment probably cost me more than it saved me because I had to wash the dishes so many times. This is not something I recommend because for me it just did not work well no matter what I did to correct the problem.

So what do I recommend? I went out and bought the largest box of Cascade I could find. Why the name brand? Because the larger box was cheaper per ounce than the generic! And the results?? My dishes sparkle again and are super clean.

Now if you want to try to save a little more money just cut the amount of detergent you use in your cups. This is something you’ll have to experiment with based on what kind of water you have but I find that I can fill each one half way and it works fine. Some people are able to leave the prewash cup empty and fill the regular cup 1/4 full and it works for them. Just experiment and find out for yourself!

Rubbermaid makes a foaming hand soap dispenser.  Big deal, you say?  Well, they have a little tag attached to it that explains that foaming hand soap uses 1 part soap to 2 parts WATER.  I personally love foaming hand soap, but am turned off by the price of it.  However, if I can use the same soap I’m already using and make it go much much further with something that costs nothing, then I’m all for it.

The cost of the dispenser is $7.99, so it would take a little while to recoup the costs, but  once you do, the savings will be great.  Now, if you don’t wash your hands much, this is probably pretty meaningless to you, but for me, it’s gold.  I change a gazillion diapers, cut up raw chicken for dinner and deal with croup a couple of times a year, so the need for saving money on my soap is high on my list.

Besides that, it’s cool!  And as a double bonus, I got a $10 gift card to Target for Christmas!

Cost

As I’m sure anyone who does laundry knows, the price of good laundry detergents can be pretty outrageous. So, I guess this logically becomes one of the areas where people want to save money. According to Trent at The Simple Dollar, his recipe had a cost of about three cents per load opposed to the economy size of leading detergents costing about 30 cents per load. On the other hand, the startup cost can turn some people away. Be prepared to spend between $10 and $20 to get started. Remember, you save money because the price per use is lower and your ingredients will make several batches.

Jill Cooper writes a great article (Demystifying the Great Laundry Detergent Dilemma) which really makes us stop and analyze WHY people want to save money on something like laundry detergent. Is it really the cost of laundry detergent that we’re trying to cut back on – or have we overspent in so many other areas of our life that this is one of the only places where we still have control? Perhaps making your own detergent is not the answer to saving money, but rather cutting back on the amount of laundry that you do.

How Well Does it Work?

Here is a question that will definitely give you a variety of opinions. Some say it works wonderfully and easily replaces their more expensive brand. Some say that it doesn’t take out tough stains, especially those that children are prone to get on their clothing. And yet others say that it works well for awhile, but then later clothes start to look dingy and dirty. I think a lot of the responses are going to depend on the ingredients that were used to create the detergent and the laundry habits of the person using them.

Ease of Making It

All in all, the process of making laundry detergent is fairly simple whether you are making powder or liquid. Shave some Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap, mix some water, measure some washing soda. You would just have to be careful during the parts that involve heat and sharp objects. It doesn’t seem too terribly time consuming either, but for those of us with children, the time and energy may not offset the cost savings.

In Conclusion

The initial cost of buying supplies may be a little more than you are used to paying for your laundry detergent, but the cost per use is definitely lower. If you decide this is right for you, make sure you are buying quality ingredients so that you will not have any issues with your clothing not getting clean (and staying clean!). And lastly, and probably most importantly, do you have the time necessary to create the detergent?

For me personally, I choose to buy commercial detergent and would rather save money by doing less laundry.

Give It a Try!
Here are links to recipes for liquid detergent:
The Simple Dollar – How to Make Your Own Laundry Detergent
Inexpensive Homemade Laundry Detergent Recipe
Brown-bag Blog: Make your own Laundry Detergent