5 Best Homemade Laundry Detergents

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Are you looking for the best homemade laundry detergent for your family? You have come to the right place. I’m here to help you find the homemade laundry detergent that will help save you money while also leaving your clothes clean and comfortable.

Homemade laundry detergent is a great way to save money each year. However, each family and each person has a different lifestyle and different needs. A family of five with three kids hellbent on having more grass stains than color on their clothes is going to need a stronger laundry detergent than little ol’ me with my office job and love for crocheting.

Once couponing for laundry detergent got to be close to impossible, I switched to homemade laundry detergent and I’ve never looked back. Even as a master couponer, even I can’t compete with the cost of homemade laundry detergent.

If you’re interested in the exact recipe I use, check it out here.

If you’d like to test my homemade laundry detergent recipe before making your own, you can get a sample here.

Without further ado, here are 5 homemade laundry detergent recipes. Which one is best for your family?

Why Homemade Laundry Detergent?

How much time do you have?! There are an infinite number of reasons you should make your own laundry detergent!

• Cheaper – homemade laundry detergent will cost you <$30 and you’ll get approximately 300 loads out of one batch.
• You can control the ingredients – By making your own laundry detergent, you can control what ingredients you are being exposed to. This is especially important for those with sensitive skin.
• You’re not paying for water – Liquid laundry detergent is mostly water. Why would you pay for water when you have it at home?
• Environmentally friendly – By making your own laundry detergent, you limit the amount of plastic containers that you are throwing away.
• Time Saver – Making your own laundry detergent will take you only about 5 minutes.
• Control the scent – If you are sensitive to smells, you can control the scent with homemade laundry detergent.

Laundry is a necessary evil that we must all tackle. We can’t avoid it. With kids, dogs, chickens, husbands, we all need a laundry detergent that works well and is cost efficient. Homemade laundry detergent covers all those bases!

When I make my homemade laundry detergent, it lasts me about a year. I am one person doing a maximum of 3 loads of laundry per week. Compared to my friend, who has a family of 7 and is doing a minimum of 10 loads per week, hers only lasts her about 3 months. But just think about how much she’d be spending on traditional laundry detergent under those same circumstances!

Well, now that you know why you should make homemade laundry detergent, I bet you’re ready to check out some different recipes for it. Let’s do it.

The OG Homemade Laundry Detergent

Everything starts somewhere, and homemade laundry detergent is no exception. This recipe from Passionate Penny Pincher is the OG in homemade laundry detergent. It uses all your classic ingredients, like borax, washing soda, baking soda, and laundry bar soap.

Almost any variation of laundry detergent will come from this original recipe, including my recipe, but this is where it all started. The other recipes I mention will have at least one of the ingredients from this original recipe in it.

Just think about how much better this container will look on your shelf in place of of that clunky Tide bottle!

You’ll find the recipe from the Passionate Penny Pincher here.

Homemade Laundry Detergent – Hold the Borax

There are several reasons you might not want Borax in your laundry detergent. Maybe you can’t get Borax where you live, maybe you’re allergic to it, or maybe you just don’t like it. Whatever reason you may have, you can certainly deviate from the OG recipe and eliminate the Borax.

Crystal at Surviving a Teacher’s Salary has already done all the trial and error for you. She’s created the best homemade laundry detergent recipe that has NO Borax in it! How nice of her!

You can find Crystal’s Borax free homemade laundry detergent recipe here.

Homemade Laundry Detergent for Sensitive Skin

If you’re one of the unlucky ones who has been plagued with sensitive skin, I don’t have to explain to you how annoying it is to go through the trial and error of finding products that DON’T irritate your skin.

Being fortunate enough to not have sensitive skin, I never really knew what y’all went through until I started dating my boyfriend. Now my life is all about homemade soaps, special laundry detergents, and selective scents.

I know, I’m preaching to the choir on that one. Well, Holly from Holly D Gray understands what you’re going through as well. Even though she was lucky enough to find a brand name laundry detergent for her household of sensitive skin, it was blowing her laundry budget way out of the water.

So, she took matters into her own hands and came up with a homemade laundry detergent specifically for those like her.

Holly’s recipe only calls for 1/8 cup, a.k.a 2 tablespoons, per load! Using this handy measuring cup will measure out exactly how much you need!

You can find Holly’s homemade laundry detergent recipe here.

All Natural Homemade Laundry Detergent

Are you looking for a more natural homemade laundry detergent? Mary from Boots and Hooves Homestead was too, so she decided to create her own.

If you don’t like the idea of adding the grated soap from the OG recipe, or you don’t like the borax or Oxi Clean, then this will be the recipe for you.

This recipe uses ingredients that you’ve probably already have in your cabinet. This only thing you might need to get is the optional essential oils – if you want them!

You can find the recipe for this all natural laundry detergent here.

Liquid Laundry Detergent

Okay, all the recipes up to this point have been powder. Well, maybe powder isn’t your thing. That’s okay. Amanda from Dwelling in Happiness helps you with making your own liquid laundry detergent.

Making this type of laundry detergent will take you a little bit more time than making the powder detergents. The powder detergents will take you 5 minutes, this one might take you 10. It would take you more time to pick out a laundry detergent in the detergent aisle than it would to make this liquid laundry detergent! Adding in the fact that this will last you almost 1 year makes it all that much more appealing.

However, the best part about using liquid laundry detergent over powder is that you can store it in aesthetically pleasing glass dispensers like this one.

Time to say goodbye to those ugly Tide containers and hello to this Joanna Gaines inspired decor.

You can find the recipe for liquid laundry detergent here.

Question: Does this work in HE washers?

Unfortunately, I cannot answer this firsthand. My washer is older than dirt. I’m really just waiting for it to die at this point so I can step up to a HE washer. I don’t even have a detergent cubie in my washer, everything just gets poured right over top of my clothes!

The reviews are torn on whether or not this is okay for HE washers. Some people say it works completely fine, others say absolutely not. Only you can decide if you want to use it for your HE washer. Here’s some things to keep in mind for when you do try this at home:

• You need less than you think. Only about 2 tablespoons, a.k.a 1/8 a cup, per load. This measuring cup will be the perfect size to measure it out.
• If using cold water, make sure all the detergent is dissolved when you pull out your clothes. If not, try switching to warm water.
• Make sure to regularly clean your washer without clothes in it to keep it smelling good and running at the top of it’s game!

When I finally make the switch to an HE washer, I will be sure to report back on my own personal experience!

Final Thoughts

I switched to homemade laundry detergent primarily to save money, but I have the added benefit of also being environmentally friendly. It’s amazing how often those two things usually go together!

If the OG laundry detergent recipe doesn’t strike your fancy, I’m sure one of the other 4 will! Store bought laundry detergent is a lot of fluff. Homemade laundry detergent gets down to the point: clean clothes.

Clean clothes, cost savings, AND sustainability? What more could you ask for?

Happy washing everyone!

More Saving Ideas:

• 5 Frugal Ways to Save Money
• Single Woman’s Guide to Budgeting
• 3 Best Coupon Apps from an Extreme Couponer!