DIY Laundry Detergent
"It's better, cheaper & smells fantastic...MAYBE"
Basically, one of everything pictured(below):
Washing Soda
Borax
Baking Soda
Grated Pink Zote Soap (or FelzNaptha)
Epsom Salts & Scent (or scented softening crystals) (2 boxes equals proper amount)
Oxygenated Stain Remover
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| DIY Laundry Detergent Ingredients |
I will start by saying that my results may be different than the glowing review of the recipe I followed because I used varied ingredients. I am not convinced that any one substitution made would change my overall experience with the results. The substitutions are as follows:
1 Bar of Zote Soap instead of 2. The package looked like 2 bars in one wrapper, so we didn't bring enough home. I don't believe there would be a major difference even if the second bar was added because it seems that this soap doesn't dissolve very well before the washer has started- there are always chunks of it still floating about.
Epsom Salts & Scent in place of softening crystals ~per another DIY recipe. Mixing essential oils with epsom salt was a prescribed substitute for using less chemical product and making the total price lower. No dramatic softening can be detected. Any noticeable scent is from the Pink Zote soap.
Competing brand of Oxygenated Stain Remover in place of OxiClean brand- for lower cost.
One warning that I did not read anywhere was that the Zote soap would get so dangerously hot.
Be Warned!
The recipe I've linked says heat it for a minute to dry it out... it took much more time than that. I would heat it and flake off the dry parts once it had cooled enough to touch, then heat again & repeat the crumbling process.
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| Zote Soap Not Cotton Candy |
According to the prescribed measurements, the cost came out to about $.07 per scoop. It is cheaper if you use only one scoop, but one scoop has not seemed to be in some of our loads.
Perhaps our water type has something to do with this.
At this point, my results have not been more remarkable than pr-emade detergents, even Value Brand powdered soaps, which if bought on sale comes out to roughly the same cost per load... I have not come to the conclusion that it is both cheaper AND better concurrently. Maybe cheaper but not better. Or better but not cheaper. Only, not both at the same time.
We are still evaluating it on various types of laundry. Chandler believes it is a miracle concoction, as his baseball pants got pretty clean. The baby clothes with food stains weren't as easily cleaned. Before I give up on making it again, I am experimenting with water temp and scoop sizes. I will have to discover something dramatically different to warrant grating anymore Zote soap.
5 Gallon Container of DIY Detergent
