Our powder laundry detergent was our first foray into DIY organic cleaners. The main thing we wanted was a recipe that saved us money and was eco friendly with a minimal amount of “toxic” chemicals.

Of course, we also wanted something that worked well. It was important that it cleaned our clothes the same or better than store-bought options.

We found a very easy laundry soap recipe but changed it slightly to meet our needs. It's more eco-friendly and cheap to make.

Best of all, it works! We have used it in several rentals and more laundromats than we can count and every time we're happy with the results.

Ingredients

Bar of Soap

You have to grate the soap to make it finer and powder-like. We use a cheese grater to grind up ours. This typically ends up being about one cup once all the grinding is complete.

Try buying soap that is chemical-free, cruelty-free, and fair trade. Also, look for soaps that have minimal to no packaging. At the very least. try to avoid soap that comes in plastic wrapping.

One Cup of Washing Soda

Washing soda seems to be very hard to find. Probably the easiest way is to buy in bulk online from amazon.

It turns out you can buy baking soda, cook it in an oven at 400* for ~30 minutes and it becomes washing soda. Here is the link where we originally found this out. Check out the link if you want more of the scientific explanation.

Initially, we liked using the baking soda since we already had it around for other various needs. However, while living in our tiny home we switched to just buying the washing soda due to no longer owning an oven.

One Cup of Borax

This seems to be very controversial as we have been hearing a lot on how Borax may be bad but as of now, we’re sticking with it. We tried a version sans borax and our clothes didn't seem to get as clean as with borax.

20 drops of Essential Oils

Any essential oil will work, it is just personal preference. We like using both lavender and tea tree oil.

Be a little careful of the type of oil you use. One time we tried rose oil which was a mistake for two reasons.

1. Rose oil is probably one of the more expensive essential oils so it cost more overall.

2. The rose oil-stained one of our white shirts.

 We suggest sticking to the cheaper oils that smell nice and aren't too dark.

Putting it Together

Combine all of the ingredients into a container of your choosing and mix well. You can either use or spoon or if you have a closable container just shake.

We keep ours in a metal container with a small metal spoon. We have also used a big glass mason jar and then used the lid as a replacement for the spoon.

How to Use

Scoop ~3 tablespoons per load. It works best to distribute throughout the laundry. We like to put some in at the bottom before we load clothes and then some more halfway.

If it's a top-loading washer, we would suggest not putting it on the very top layer of clothes. We have noticed there are times where will have some residue leftover after washing.

This recipe has been used for both front-loading washers and the top-loading, standard washer and both work just fine. Even if the washer has a special place for powder detergent we just put in with the clothes as this seems to work best.

Money Breakdown

For the money break down we will go over what each item costs. We try to find most of it from the internet (links included) since everyone has different stores around them and we move a lot.

Bar of soaps - Dr. Bronners Castile bar soap ~$4.69 on their website

Borax - 65oz box for $8.57. Since we use a cup that’s $0.97 a cup

Baking soda - 13.5lb bag for $17.31. Since we use a cup that’s $0.67 per cup

Essential oils differ by brand, type and how much one uses so for the calculations we will keep the essential oils out for consistency.

We get about 16 servings of powder laundry detergent by using 3 tablespoons per load. That means we pay $0.39 per load of laundry for powder detergent. Which is pretty good if you ask us.

Money-Saving Tip

Use Hotel Soap

Currently, we are using complimentary hotel soap so our cost is even less! Since we switched to zero waste we no longer use any hotel toiletries. However, before this switch, it turns out we had quite the collection. As we try to use up all the soap we have it helps that it was technically "free".

Buy Local Soap

You can also find a bar of soap cheaper than the one mentioned above. We have found that buying local soap and farmer's markets is always a great choice. Not only is this option typically cheaper but it often has less or no packaging. The soap is also more likely to be fair trade, cruelty-free.

Be Aware of Products

You need to make sure to check the products for this DIY to ensure everything is cruelty-free. We recently discovered Arm and Hammer tests on animals so we are in the process of finding a new brand of baking soda to buy.

If you are going to buy laundry detergent instead of a DIY at least opt for an environmentally friendly, cruelty-free brand.

We think this DIY simple powder laundry detergent might be one of the best homemade items we use. It's easy to make and saves us money.

Let us know if any of you come up with better variations we can try. We always like hearing about different essential oils people love using.