The best laundry detergent is made at home using Borax detergent, washing soda and fels naptha soap. These are very cheap ingredients and make huge batches for pennies!

*Organic laundry detergent can be made at home for pennies.

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Best Laundry Detergent

The best laundry detergent? Everyone has a favorite detergent. It might be the one your parents used, or perhaps it’s just the first one you happened to pick up when you started living on your own. The thing is, this is a product you live with all day long. All your clothes are touched by its scent. The way it feels on your skin is a part of your daily life. This is a product you buy over and over and over, maybe just because it’s the cheapest around. Your laundry detergent makes a big difference in your day, so isn’t it worth finding the best laundry detergent around?

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Did you know, though, that you can make the best laundry detergent in your own kitchen and customize it to your own needs? You can make your own environmentally friendly, allergen free laundry detergent in your own kitchen! You can even change the recipe until it suits you perfectly. You can add brighteners and fragrance if you wish. At last, you can truly be fully in control of your laundry detergent, while paying less than $10.00 for a year of washing clothes!

Essentially, all you need to make laundry detergent is a bar of soap, washing soda, and borax. You can use any soap you like, but Fels Naptha soap is often considered the best. Washing soda is sometimes available in grocery stores, although it has fallen out of favor in many locations. If it isn’t available, many stores sell it online. Borax detergent is still used by many people, so borax is often easy to find in grocery stores. Once you have these items, you’re ready to make the best laundry detergent you’ve ever used!

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Fels Naptha Soap

Fels Naptha or Zote soap is typically used to pre-treat stains on clothing. This makes it an excellent soap to use in your homemade detergent. It’s also just handy to have around the house, since it can be used to treat poison ivy. However effective it may be at removing stains and battling poison ivy, it is known to be a skin irritant. If you find that using Fels Naptha soap creates a detergent that leaves you itching, switch to another soap such as Ivory or Zote, which has a pretty pink color and works great.

Washing Soda

Many people nowadays have no idea what washing soda is. It is also known as soda ash, but it is more generally known as sodium carbonate. It has a number of uses, including cleaning pools and softening water, but it’s not always available in boxes in stores. You can make your own, but it’s very inexpensive to purchase. This is one case where you’re probably better off just buying it. I use Arm and Hammer brand but whatever is available in your area will be fine.

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Borax Detergent

The directions for making soap, washing soda, and borax detergent are different depending on who you ask. One of the simplest recipes is to use five gallons of water, half of a bar of soap, half a cup of washing soda, and a quarter cup of borax. To make the detergent, you simply grate your soap finely and dissolve it in hot water in a pan on the stove. You then add your melted soap, washing soda, and borax to the rest of the hot water. That’s it! All you need is one cup of detergent per load of laundry. If you have your batch in a 5 gallon bucket Be sure to stir your detergent every time you use it because it will gel. I like to save a few large commercial detergent bottles and fill them up instead. I find it easier and less messy to put the cap on a shake before use, rather than having to stir up the glumps everytime with a stick. The best laundry detergent you can make might vary these ingredients slightly depending on your laundry machine, the quality of your water, and the amount of dirt on your clothes. The best way to figure out what you need is by trial and error, so experiment a little!

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Extras:

Oxyclean

A very effective stain remover, Oxyclean is sodium percarbate mixed with a non-chlorine bleaching agent. When mixed with water Oxyclean produces hydrogen peroxide. It is a great stain remover because it is a strong oxidizer, and the substance does not weaken and attack the fabric like chlorine bleach does. Oxyclean is also non-toxic and safe for the environment.

Some people have had great success running Oxyclean and hot water through their carpet cleaners. With the outrageous cost of rental carpet cleaning detergent this is a very cost effective idea. If you have hard water or just really dirty, greasy clothes to process, you may want to add a scoop of Oxyclean to your laundry. It comes in a dry powder and is sold everywhere.

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Essential Oils

I am guilty of buying a particular overpriced laundry detergent (cold power) because of the absolutely wonderful smell it has. When I try to wean myself off it I really miss the way our clothes smell. Recently my 11 year old daughter had an equally strong emotional reaction when I bought another jug of it on sale this week. She "ordered" me to keep buying it! If you need flavor in your homemade laundry detergent then get a very small amount of your favorite essential oil and add to your batch. Orange, eucalyptus and tee tree oils have the added advantage of being cleaning agents themselves. For me, I don't really want to smell like oranges and pine trees, so I will keep smelling until the right one comes along. Then I will be cured from Tide Coldwater forevermore. No kidding, they are getting $15.00 a jug for the stuff.

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Best Laundry Detergent to Frugal Living

Best Laundry Detergent to Frugal Tips