How to Make Your Own Laundry Soap

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There are so many recipes out there for how to make your own laundry soap. I finally found and tweaked a recipe I liked. But then my problem was figuring out the process of making the laundry soap.  Through much trial and error and scouring over countless websites I finally developed a recipe and method that worked for me.  [Read about My Natural and Affordable Laundry Routine. You can see here that I hadn’t tweaked my recipe yet.] A method that didn’t kill my food processor. I didn’t have to cook. And didn’t take hours to make.

How to Make Your Own Laundry Soap: Recipe Hunt

Really, most laundry soap recipes out there are similar. But it was still surprisingly difficult to find one that worked well for me.  My husband and I rented a house for two years. That house had a water softener. The softener definitely helped with the effectiveness of the soap so I didn’t have to do any tweaking.  I found a recipe for liquid laundry soap (because I was biased against powder…I don’t know why…) and made a big batch.  It worked great for the two years that we lived in the rental. Then we moved into our new house and I wasn’t impressed. My laundry just felt like it wasn’t as clean.  We have hard water in this house but nothing major and no iron issues so we didn’t install a softener. After a couple weeks I started my hunt for another laundry soap recipe.  I finally got over my bias against powder recipes and decided to give one a try. The recipe called for tons of washing soda and Borax and only one bar of soap. I was a bit skeptical but made the recipe accordingly.  About halfway through using up that first powder batch I did more reading and discovered that Borax and washing soda serve the same purpose.  I also didn’t like the small amount of soap in the recipe. So I tweaked the measurements a bit and came up with my own, very simple indeed, recipe for how to make your own laundry soap.

Laundry Soap Recipe

6 cups washing soda 2 bars Kirk’s Castile soap 20 drops lemon essential oil [I use Young Living. Stacy at Humorous Homemaking sells Young Living and is very helpful when learning how to use them.] Step 1: Place 3 cups of washing soda in your food processor. I use this seven cup Cuisinart.  Step 2: Chop 1 bar of Kirk’s Castile soap. Add the soap to the washing soda. 

Step 3: Process until smooth. When it is warm outside, I take my food processor on the porch and do everything outside. Otherwise, to keep yourself from gagging on the dust just drape a dish towel over the food processor before starting.  Step 4: Pour the processed powder mixture into a large bowl. Step 5: Repeat steps 1-4. Step 6: After you have the two batches mixed and combined in the bowl, add lemon essential oil. (Or whatever essential oil you prefer.) Mix with a slotted spoon. Pour the finished laundry soap into a storage container. I like to keep mine in gallon jar. 

Powder vs. Liquid

I love how my powder recipe works. And I love that it doesn’t require a mess on the stove or stirring over low heat for.ever. I can whip up a batch of powder soap in 10 minutes! Powder laundry soap also takes much less storage space. I can keep it in a gallon jar above my washer.  With the liquid recipe, I had to keep a clunky 3-gallon bucket under the laundry sink. 

The Homemade Laundry Soap Controversy

I know there are a million reasons not to use homemade laundry soap.  Some say it wrecks the machine if you don’t use hot enough water. 

• Our water heater is set hotter than the average Joe’s. It’s intense. So even the warm water setting on my machine is close to hot. 
• I never wash anything in cold water. I never have. 

Some say the soap builds in the clothes.

• I have no way of knowing if it’s building up in our clothes. I’ve never stripped them. 
  • But I can compare them to my clothes as a kid. We did our laundry in a wringer washer with homemade soap. Like, homemade from the tallow and lye! When we had to use soap that hadn’t cured long enough, the towels didn’t absorb and our clothes felt nasty. I think that’s what I would call build up. 
• We have nice clothes. That don’t smell. That aren’t dingy and stained. [Except in the usual wearing and tearing way.]

Some say detergents work better than soaps because they are plant-based.

• I use Kirk’s Castile soap which is vegetable based…?

Washing Cloth Diapers

Because there are lots of people who have been cloth diapering much longer than I have, I follow their advice.  So when Fluff Love University says that Tide is the best for washing cloth diapers, I use Tide. I don’t mess around with homemade laundry soap. Especially with hard water that diminishes detergent and soap efficiency. 

How to Make Your Own Laundry Soap: The Verdict

You have to use the laundry soap that works for your family and with your water.  I choose to continue to use homemade laundry soap because it is free of fragrances and other nasty ingredients.  And it is very affordable. Once you have a system down for how to make your own laundry soap, it will become second nature.