I have seen many recipes for homemade laundry soap, but most were for Liquid soap.  I then came across a recipe for the powered version.  I decided to try it.  It was so easy.  All it called for was 1 box of Borax, 1 box of Washing Soda, and 1 bar of soap (like ivory).  I used my grinder attachment for my mixer to grind the soap and then just mixed together.  I made a large container and only takes 2 TB, so it should last for a couple of months.  So far I can not see a difference with the clothes.  I think my DH was a little sceptical, especially when we had to go to 3 stores to find the washing soda.  So has anyone else tried this.

Shannon

 I use a liquid recipe that uses baking soda instead of washing soda.  They are different ingredients but perform pretty much the same function.  It works much better than the store bought soaps.

I also like that I know that it has no dyes or perfums.  I feel that it has to be better for my family and the enviroment.

Haven't tried MYO laundry soap because I suspect it won't suds well. Doesn't matter to me, but DH believes in getting lots of suds worked up before putting clothes in washer. If it does make suds, please enlighten me. I already have the borax and a bar of Fels Naphtha soap and washing soda is easy to come by here.

It wont sud but it does not mean it is not working.  If you think about it there is only 1 bar of soap.  Maybe you could try it and see how the clothes turn out.  My dh was leery too but I told him I just wanted to try it and now he can not tell the difference. hth

Shannon

I use pretty much the same recipe, but I use 1/2 box each of borax and washing soda to one bar of Ivory or Zote soap. I put in 4 Tbsp. of detergent, and my family is pleased with the results. (We have a super-capacity washer, and I generally run full loads.) My DH is funny about how his clothes smell out of the wash. With Ivory or Zote soap, the clothes have a fresh lemony scent when they come out of the wash, but no smell is left when they are dry.

If your family is funny about fresh-scented clothes, maybe switch out the Ivory soap with something more scented, such as Irish Spring. I've used that before, but found it made my skin itchy.

I have used this recipe for a few years, and have found that I need to pretreat my stains more than with commercial detergent. Lately, I've been pretreating them with a bar of Ivory soap. As the washing machine is filling, I'll look over each garment to see if it needs special treatment. Then I'll put the stain under the water in the filling tub, then give it a rub with the bar of Ivory soap. So far I've been happy with it.

 I used to make the liquid version of that recipe, but using it for a long time made my whites turn grayish, which I didn't like.  Even with bleach added, the whites just didn't look right.  If I decided to make my own laundry detergent again I would alternate with store bought.

Stacycue:

 I used to make the liquid version of that recipe, but using it for a long time made my whites turn grayish, which I didn't like.  Even with bleach added, the whites just didn't look right.  If I decided to make my own laundry detergent again I would alternate with store bought.

Many storebought products have blueing added to them.  All you have to do is buy a little bottle of bluing ( in the laundry section) and add a few drops to the rinse water (do not add directly on clothes).  

Storebought clothes have blue dye added to them to give them that bright white look.  Washing takes out that dye after a few washes.  Bleach actually makes the clothes dingier because it takes more of the dye out.  I just make a habit of adding the bluing to every white load rinse.  Even using every load, the bottle lasts nearly forever.  I've had my bottle since before we moved -- 8 years ago.

2ndGenGranola:

Stacycue:

 I used to make the liquid version of that recipe, but using it for a long time made my whites turn grayish, which I didn't like.  Even with bleach added, the whites just didn't look right.  If I decided to make my own laundry detergent again I would alternate with store bought.

 

Many storebought products have blueing added to them.  All you have to do is buy a little bottle of bluing ( in the laundry section) and add a few drops to the rinse water (do not add directly on clothes).  

Storebought clothes have blue dye added to them to give them that bright white look.  Washing takes out that dye after a few washes.  Bleach actually makes the clothes dingier because it takes more of the dye out.  I just make a habit of adding the bluing to every white load rinse.  Even using every load, the bottle lasts nearly forever.  I've had my bottle since before we moved -- 8 years ago.

Thanks, 2ndGen, that's interesting and good to know.  I'll see if I can find some bluing.

2ndGenGranola:

Many storebought products have blueing added to them.

The yellow or grayish coloring of my whites and lights was one of the biggest issues I had with using homemade detergent. I wondered what ingedient was different.

My other issues being the lack of availability of washing soda in the stores I shop in and the cost not being as significantly lower than commercial detergent due to prices of the ingedients.