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Homemade laundry detergent and oxygen bleach: easy, cheap, effective, and safe | The Old Farmer's Almanac

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Make Your Own Laundry Detergent

Recipes for Homemade Detergent and Bleach

Margaret Boyles
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In recent years, I’ve started making my own laundry detergent. It’s less irritating on my skin and works as well as any commercial detergent for a fraction of the cost. Here’s the simple recipe.

“After the ecstasy, the laundry.” I’d say that this famous Zen saying also holds for agony. Yes, the laundry always awaits! Ecstasy or agony, laundry serves as a metaphor for everything about daily living that demands attention.

Homemade Detergent

For years, I had made homemade detergent out of borax, washing soda, and grated hard soap.  However, after a while, I found that the borax was irritating to my skin. 

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Here’s my recipe. Toss these ingredients individually right onto the clothes you are about to wash:

  • A good squirt of liquid Castile soap (three or four tablespoons).
  • Half a cup of baking soda (light load) or washing soda (more alkaline, better at lifting grease/oils from heavy work clothes). Use protective kitchen gloves if you need to break up clumps of washing soda, which can be slightly irritating.
  • A handful of plain salt (I use non-iodized kosher from a big box; brightens colors, helps remove stains).

Works as well as any detergent I’ve used. Give it a try yourself!

Homemade (non-chlorinated) oxygen stain remover

If you need an oxygen bleach, I have a recipe that’s a cinch to make. It not only works well on most fabric stains, but you can also use it to clean just about everything—even as a gentle disinfecting wash for fruits and vegetables.

Here’s how I make it:

  • Mix equal parts of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide and baking soda with two parts of hot water and shake well. For deeply set stains, use washing soda in place of baking soda.
  • Funnel the solution into a light-excluding bottle to maintain the stain-fighting strength of the peroxide. That’s it!

Note: This homemade solution doesn’t spray the way commercial liquid oxygen bleaches do, because the baking soda settles. I just shake it well and squirt or sprinkle it onto stains, or add half a cup to the wash water.

That’s it! 

→ See more tricks to remove stains from clothes!

Cleaning
About The Author

Margaret Boyles

Margaret Boyles is a longtime contributor to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. She wrote for UNH Cooperative Extension, managed NH Outside, and contributes to various media covering environmental and human health issues. Read More from Margaret Boyles

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Comments

Jacque (not verified)

1 year 2 months ago

Question: Are all the ingredients safe for septic systems and streams?

Lisa (not verified)

2 years 1 month ago

in 2020, I bought 'Laundry Balls" they are filled with clay beads, that change the ph of the water, t clean your clothes. I was skeptical at first. But I even use them on my husbands dirty(construction worker) clothes. They kill the any odor on the clothes, and work great.

Pam W. (not verified)

3 years 2 months ago

Is this recipe good for front loader washing machines?

Leanne (not verified)

5 years 4 months ago

When I was not much more than a toddler, I used a dry borax-based hand soap to wash my hands, and promptly found out I was allergic to borax. Is there something else I could use in place of the borax? (Every laundry soap recipe I've found uses borax)

Nancy (not verified)

5 years 3 months ago

This recipe doesn't seem to use borax, so it should be perfect for you.

PAULA SCHMIDT (not verified)

5 years 4 months ago

When the detergent recipe calls for washing soda is that baking soda? what is washing soda?

Washing soda (sodium carbonate) is not the same as baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), though they are similarly structured compounds. Washing soda is primarily used for removing stains from clothing and fabrics because it has a high alkalinity and acts as a powerful solvent. It can be bought from most stores that sell baking soda. 

You can get WASHING soda from small hardware stores like ACE Hardware and Hardware Hank and similar stores. It’s usually stocked alongside with the Borax and Fels Naphtha Bars.

Great comments, all! I've also used the dry mixtures, but found they tend to cake in my wash if I'm not careful.

I don't think you have to worry about precise measurements in any of these homemade products. Half and half washing soda and borax with an equal amount of grated hard soap should do the trick.

And Woodfarm is right; the peroxide does degrade quickly when mixed with water or exposed to light. Guess I'll start mixing my stain remover just before I treat the wash I'm about to do.