Saving money with home made laundry detergent

March 11, 2009 by 8 Comments

I do at least four loads of wash per week. This week laundry detergent was on the list and I was dreading buying it. I don’t budget separately for this but lump it in with our “food” budget in Mint since it comes from the grocery store.

I found a recipe in Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s new book “The Duggars, 20 and Counting” about how they manage their very large family. The recipe will last my family two years, assuming 4 loads per week, and cost about $3.18 to make. I made it this morning and it took me about 20 minutes. Not too bad.

The book is great, with many cost-effective meal recipes and some great stories about living in a large family, being efficient and living without debt. They even built their 7,000 sq ft custom home cash. I’m impressed and inspired.

Here’s the laundry detergent recipe:

1 bar fels-namptha soap (grated) $2.12 at Winco
1 cup washing soda (not baking soda, which is different)$5.34 at Winco
1/2 cup borax $2.12 at Winco.

Mix the soap with about two cups of water in a saucepan and melt it completely (it will look like clarified butter and will make a sticky mess of your pan, so don’t use an hairloom pan. I’m going to pick one up at goodwill expressly for this purpose).

Pour the melted soap over the borax and washing soada in a five-gallon container (I got mine surplus via the Industrial Materials Exchange which is a service of King County here in Washington State, but maybe your county has something similar?)

Then mix the three ingredients completely and fill the container to the top with hot water and mix again. This will make a liquid concentrate which you have to cut in half one more time to use. Use a smaller container (I’m using a canning jar) and put one cup of concentrate to one cup of water and stir or shake.

For top-loading machines, use one cup. For front-loaders, use 1/3 cup.

I’ll make a note after we’ve done some loads of wash with this method. I’ll also give some to friends and get their opinions on the stuff and ask them to post back about it. Finally, if I like it in my washer, I’m going to try the concentrate in my dishwasher.

Image courtsey: en.red-dot.org

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  • Holly

    What in the world is Winco?
    Never heard of it!
    Love this idea though!
    Never heard of the first ingredient either!
    I think they would all 3 be hard to find. Or maybe….I just don’t know where to look. Pretty sure there is no Winco here!!

  • JessicaW

    Winco is a employee-owned grocery store, but i’m sure you could find the ingredients at a hardware store or Wal-Mart, or K-Mart. The Fels-Namptha is an old-time bar soap that is sold with laundry detergents (look at either the top or bottom shelf, it’ll be out of the line of sight). It’s an excellent stain remover and I’ve used it for years to pre-treat stains–grass stain, coffee, blood, etc. I don’t know if you guys have them there, but I’ll bet you could find everything at a YardBirds or JayBirds store (They’re a rural hardware store).

  • abby

    So how is the detergent working? I’ve been a fan of the Duggars show and even based some of our family rules off their website (have you checked this out?). My birthday is coming up and I’m adding their book to my list – you’ve confirmed there is good stuff in their book! – Thanks, Abby

  • JessicaW

    We like the detergent. My great-aunt has made a batch too, and my grandparents are trying it. So far, few complaints. The only thing I can’t tell is if it’s fading things. (Much of our stuff is kind of old, so it’s hard to know if it’s fading due to the detergent, or if it’s just old stuff). :)

  • claudinemj

    I would worry about the front loader/efficiency machines. Also, I've never heard of winco or any of these products you mention but I admit that my interest is piqued. Mostly though, I'm impressed that you only do 4 loads a week!! How is that possible? I do about 2/day with a super capacity (1 load = 3 reg loads) efficiency machine.

  • jessc098

    Hi Claudine, I wrote this post nearly a year ago, and we were doing 4 loads, now it's about six. We have a super capacity front load washer. This is a liquid detergent, so It works well for front loaders. Winco is specific to the West Coast of the USA, but I think you can find these products at places like hardware stores. Figure that any place that carries canning jars will have all these items–they're old-time, depression-era staples that still prove terribly useful. I have found that the borax (detergent) works far better with an enzyme in it, I'm now adding one bottle of “Kids and Pets” a liquid enzyme stain remover, this really helps with stain and odor removal (ever notice how stinky those front-loaders get?). I just add one bottle to the entire batch which is something like 15 gallons (I'm going off memory). Kids and Pets<img src=”https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=thepennfami-20&l=ur2&o=1″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”" style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” />

  • claudinemj

    I would worry about the front loader/efficiency machines. Also, I've never heard of winco or any of these products you mention but I admit that my interest is piqued. Mostly though, I'm impressed that you only do 4 loads a week!! How is that possible? I do about 2/day with a super capacity (1 load = 3 reg loads) efficiency machine.

  • jessc098

    Hi Claudine, I wrote this post nearly a year ago, and we were doing 4 loads, now it's about six. We have a super capacity front load washer. This is a liquid detergent, so It works well for front loaders. Winco is specific to the West Coast of the USA, but I think you can find these products at places like hardware stores. Figure that any place that carries canning jars will have all these items–they're old-time, depression-era staples that still prove terribly useful. I have found that the borax (detergent) works far better with an enzyme in it, I'm now adding one bottle of “Kids and Pets” a liquid enzyme stain remover, this really helps with stain and odor removal (ever notice how stinky those front-loaders get?). I just add one bottle to the entire batch which is something like 15 gallons (I'm going off memory). Kids and Pets<img src=”https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=thepennfami-20&l=ur2&o=1″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”" style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” />