It's a dirty business, but someone in the house must do the laundry and the dishes!

For my first post, I thought I would share my experience of making dishwasher detergent and laundry detergent. I stocked up on laundry detergent and softener when I first started couponing and had a seemingly endless supply. I also picked up a giant box of Tide powder for 50% off at our Safeway last year AND used a coupon, so I thought I was set for years as far as laundry supplies go. We went through the liquid in about 18 months and then I started in on the Tide. The Tide quickly brought out bouts of eczema in both myself and my husband. We both thought we were allergic to Tide as children, but thought it was worth a try since we found it for such a steal! Big mistake. I did some research on what we could do to alleviate our symptoms as quickly as possible. All signs pointed to homemade laundry detergent, so I researched my options, and headed off to the WalMart for supplies.

Since I don't have a cricut machine, I also don't have cool vinyl lettering like all the other blogging ladies out there; however, my jars are still fully functional and beautiful! I suppose that needs to be my next big craft purchase given my love of pretty lettering and giant clear glass jars...

The glass jars in the photo came from the kitchen department at WalMart and were relatively inexpensive. The larger one contains the laundry detergent and holds about 2 gallons of the powder. It was only $10 and it looks fantastic on my counter in the laundry room. The smaller jar was about half the price, and it holds about half the quantity of detergent. I'm using that one for the dishwasher detergent. I used a very small scooping spoon for the dishwasher detergent and the scoop from the oxyclean for the laundry detergent.

DIY Laundry Detergent

For the laundry detergent I slightly modified a recipe I found on another blog via Pinterest. All of the products were located in the laundry aisle of my local Super WalMart. The baking soda can be found in the baking aisle, but the max size available was 2 pounds. I found the 4 pound box in the laundry aisle and it was cheaper than purchasing 2-2 pound boxes.

Ingredients

2 containers of Tropical Splash Purex Crystals (28 oz)
1 container of OxyClean (3 lb)
1 big box of 20 Mule Team Borax (4 lb 12 oz)
1 big box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (3 lb 7 oz)
1 big box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (4 lb)
5 bars Fels Naptha (5.5 oz)

You can use Zote Soap in place of the Fels Naptha if you don't care for the scent of Fels Naptha, but I was unable to find the Zote Soap in our WalMart. I have seen it at Big Lots, but I went with what was closest to my house. My husband likes the scent of Fels Naptha and I don't hate it once it is mixed with the Purex Crystals. If you use Zote Soap, only use 2 (14.1 oz) bars.

You can also use any scent of Purex Crystals, but the Tropical Splash is my favorite and comes in a yellow bottle. Downy makes Unstoppables which are a fine substitute for the Purex Crystals and come in a variety of scents; however, the Downy is more expensive.

You will also want to have some supplies on hand:

• 5 gallon bucket for mixing with a tight fitting lid
• A spoon or kitchen tool that has a long handle and is very sturdy
• cheese grater or food processor
• a big bowl for the shredded soap
• 2 gallon container for storage

Step 1: Shred the soap

I had read online at how annoying the soap grating was using a manual cheese grater so we used our big food processor with the shredding blade. It worked like a charm as long as my husband was operating it. He has the magic touch when it comes to that machine providing the right thickness of shreds. If you use a processor like ours, his advice is to not push down very hard while the soap is shredding. That will give you nice light shreds that will dissolve easily in water. If you push too hard, the shreds will be thick and won't dissolve when you do your laundry. A box grater works just fine too and is the only time consuming part of making your own laundry detergent. If the shreds are still hard, it isn't thin enough. Our shreds were very pliant. 

Step 2: The 5-Gallon Bucket

Dump all of the ingredients into your 5-gallon bucket. You will want to save the cups and measuring devices that come with the store bought products (like the Purex Crystals and the OxyClean) so you can use them for scooping out your new homemade detergents! Put the lid on the bucket and start shaking to combine the ingredients. Open the lid and stir everything with your long handled spoon or kitchen tool until everything is uniformly mixed.

You may want to wear a hospital mask while you are dumping and mixing because it does create quite a bit of product dust, mostly from the Borax.

Step 3: Fill the Jar

Slowly fill your jar or 2 gallon container with your new laundry detergent mixture. Slide the oxy-clean scoop into the top and put the lid on!

Usage Tips

When you use the laundry detergent you only need 2-3 tablespoons. It seemed strange to me that you would use such a small amount of soap, but I have done several loads and it works great! It is safe for HE machines but it needs to be added directly to the drum where your clothes go and not into the dispenser.

I've also started using the extra rinse feature on my washing machine to help get the Tide out of our laundry as quickly as possible. I know it will take a few washes for everything that was washed with the Tide previously, but the more rinses the faster it will get the heck out!

It doesn't get as sudsy as the stuff you buy in the store and I have read some comments on other blogs that the Zote is less sudsy than the Fels Naptha. I don't have a front loader, so I can't tell how sudsy mine gets throughout the whole wash cycle, but I did stop my washer and open the lid a few times to check out the sudsiness!

Cost

We figured it out that I spent around $25 on the ingredients. That does not count the big glass jar, since we'll reuse that many times. For the same amount of Tide powder, I would need to spend around $50 (more if you wanted to add the Purex Crystals to loads of laundry with the Tide). You would also use more of the Tide powder than you would your new homemade detergent, but for comparison sake, I just decided to compare by volume, not cost per load.

DIY Dishwasher Detergent

The dishwasher detergent was easier than the laundry detergent because there is no shredding involved. Next time I make this I will probably do a double batch so that it better fills my glass jar. It is purely about aesthetics with me and my kitchen counters! I found several dishwasher detergent recipes on Pinterest and on various blogs, but I ended up going with a combination of several. 

The only supplies you need for this one is a jar or container to store it in and a spoon to mix it with. The only instructions you need is to measure it all out, dump it in your container, and stir it up! You can use 1 to 2 tablespoons in your soap compartment for each load. You can probably skip the hospital mask when mixing this up as it is a much smaller quantity of ingredients, but if you do a double batch like I plan to do next time, the mask is probably a good idea.

Ingredients 

2 cups Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

2 cups 20 Mule Team Borax

1 container Lemi-Shine (12 oz)

1 cup Morton Kosher Salt

If your store doesn't have Morton Kosher Salt, I am sure any Kosher Salt would do. I wouldn't use regular table salt because Kosher Salt is definitely different. The biggest difference is that it doesn't have the preservatives table salt has in it. If you are extra curious, I found a great article on The Food Network about the various salts and what each is used for.