The Scoop

Why I ventured into homemade laundry detergent, I am still not so sure. I think that my ultimate goal, as it is with most things, is to save money. I try to be a "savvy shopper" and for me that is not just about shopping. It is also about finding ways to save on things that we use every day. Maybe I should say I try to be a "savvy saver". Either way I had been hearing about laundry detergent from other moms at park day and read where a friend had made some. I figured what have I got to lose and my stockpile of detergent was dwindling. I purchased the ingredients and made it. Here is what I used.

This recipe is supposed to last for approximately 4-6 months. I figured we would be around 3-4 months as we seem to have many, many loads of laundry each week. I prefer powder over liquid detergent so this fit. PROS: The clothes came out clean. I didn't have to put in anything extra. I did still use bleach for my whites. Not sure if it was needed or not, but I have always used bleach for my whites. CONS: The clothes didn't smell. You may be thinking this should be a pro. In one sense that is true. Of course you don't want clean clothes to smell. But I'm not talking about dirty, stinky smell. I like my clothes to have a smell of freshness. One of the probable reasons I use bleach is because I love the way the clothes smell when they come out of the dryer. With this detergent, the clothes have pretty much no smell at all. I ended up buying some of those new scent boost crystals. Of course I love them! My clothes smell great. However, even with coupons, they are expensive! So I decided that it went against my "reasoning" for making laundry detergent, if I am still going to have to go out and buy extras for my laundry. Which, by the way, I can get detergent that I like for much less between sales & coupons, like a couple dollars. My other con was that my batch of detergent only lasted me for about a month to two months. I had meant to keep track of a load count, but that didn't happen. I do approximately 6-10 loads of laundry a week though.

I have not yet given up on my hope of saving with detergent though. I made up a second batch, but then the very next day spoke to someone about liquid detergent. She said she used the Duggar recipe and it was great. And because it is liquid you can add essential oils for fragrance. This fixed my main con so I decided it couldn't hurt to try. Especially since all I had to do was buy a 5 gallon bucket, I had the rest on hand. I have been using this for about six weeks now. I have not added the oils for fragrance yet, but I get a hint of fragrance from the soap that is used. Clothes are clean. I should get about 180 loads, so about 4-8 months depending on how many loads I do a week. Hopefully with some new rules for my clothes changing girls we will get closer to the 8 month mark.

So that's the scoop on my experience with homemade laundry detergent. I will make sure to let you know when we finish out the first batch of Duggar soap.