Home made laundry detergent

Good afternoon everyone!


I was hoping to get some guidance or recommendations on how to create my own laundry detergent!

I researched that I can make soap out of tallow, possibly even use borax, yet I am at a crossroads on what the best or at least most practical option would be.

Going to the laundromat has been getting more and more expensive, and I was talking with my fiancee this morning about "stomping on the laundry" while we shower, would regular bar soap be fine?


I perused a bit on the forum, but I couldn't find anything specific.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Friday!

- Jack

Maybe you saw these:

https://permies.com/t/238694/pep-nest/Natural-Laundry-Detergent-Works

https://permies.com/t/6224/cheap-laundry-soap-recipe

https://permies.com/t/234276/tech/Laundry-Hand-Matters-Laundry-Soap

I spent several months using a modified toilet plunger to clean clothing in my bathtub, upgrading to a pail with the plunger, which workes better since there was more water depth, before upgrading to a used portable washing machine that connected to my sink, because laundromats can be so incredibly pricey to use(for me, it was $40 in cab rides, and $40 in fees, every time I used one!).

It's doable to wash without a washing machine, but drying items is the tricky part since wringing by hand is so difficult. The portable washer was a huge improvement. I think I paid $150 for it, and it paid for itself after 2 missed trips to the laundromat. I ended up only needing the laundromat a few times a year, to wash things like duvets.

There are many stages to washing clothing:

1) wetting clothing
2) agitation with soap
3) Draining, and partially wringing out soapy water
4) Refill water
5) Agitation in plain water
6) Drain, and partially wring out soapy water
7) Repeat steps 4-6 another 2-4x, until soap goes away.
8) Wring out clothing well (lifting, twisting, and squeezing each piece repeatedly)
9) Hang to dry.
10) Check and move clothing around repeatedly to ensure all bits dry
11) Put away dry clothing.
12) If required,  repeat steps 1-11, because you discover that things didn't dry soon enough  (especially if drying indoors) and things became musty smelling, so you need to rewash!

This gets almost exponentially more difficult as items get larger - a sock is trivial to hand wash. A large bath sheet is a chore.

Stomping on the laundry while you shower is unlikely to do much good, as it would only cover the beginnings of agitating with soap - I was shocked at how difficult rinsing and wringing clothing was.

I won't say not to handwash clothing - but I would never dream of asking someone to handwash clothing (and it would be a relationship -ending request if someone suggested I start).

As for homemade detergent - I wouldnt try it in a high efficiency washer but for a portable washer or handwashing, it should be fine. Bar soap is unlikely to be strong enough to act as laundry soap, as it's usually formulate to NOT strip all the oil from your skin. You can buy bar laundry soap for handwashing.

Anne Miller wrote:Maybe you saw these:

https://permies.com/t/238694/pep-nest/Natural-Laundry-Detergent-Works

https://permies.com/t/6224/cheap-laundry-soap-recipe

https://permies.com/t/234276/tech/Laundry-Hand-Matters-Laundry-Soap

I did not! Thank you!!

Jack Sato wrote:would regular bar soap be fine?

These are the instructions Dr. Bronners supplies for using their bar soap for laundry: https://www.drbronner.com/pages/castile-bar-soap-dilutions-guide#second-heading

I bet just washing yourself while trodding on your clothes would get them pretty clean. You'd need to spend some extra time rinsing and then figure out how to dry, but that's all doable.

We also made a list of saponin-rich plants for soapmaking. I have had good results from English Ivy.

Thanks everyone for the help!

We were able to get it figured out!!

the clothesline system we set up in the house. ( See pic)

the rafters are about 8ft off of the ground and serendipitously between two fans, we hung the sheets, cracked a window, and went out for burgers!  


I appreciate all the pointers and resources! Our laundry has never smelled so good!

I make my detergent using one box borax, one box washing soda, one cup soap flakes or finely shredded castile soap. Only needs 1/4 cup detergent per load. I use it in regular top loader machine.

Catie George wrote:...but drying items is the tricky part since wringing by hand is so difficult.

Fwiw (For What it's Worth we got a Calliger 'clothes press' / wringer by Northwoods, ie:




..etc - Gets Most of the water out, and works way Way better than 'hand wringing'.

PS - Sorry about the 'Huge Pics' - Not sure how to 'scale down' to fit better, sorry! Also - Not a 'shill' or salesperson for Northwoods, there - Just posting a 'satisfied customer testimony'.

Then, of course, 'Line Drying' the rest of the way is the ticket. If you're in a Very Cold Enviro (like in Winter) where Outdoors line-drying is impractical, If you have a Wood Stove / Fireplace, hang near There (for Heat, obviously) and hook up a Large Box Fan to help circulate the air / promote evaporation, etc. Edit: Yep, near the Ceiling Fan also helps (but not Too near..  

The Battle Can be Won.

Ps:

Nick Mick wrote:I make my detergent using one box borax, one box washing soda, one cup soap flakes or finely shredded castile soap. Only needs 1/4 cup detergent per load. I use it in regular top loader machine.

Yep, very similar to Our recipe, + 1 for Castille soap - we Also added some 'Grated Zote' which works very well.

Holy moly!

Thanks for the reccomendation for the Calliger! We were just talking about that yesterday, we got half of our load done in the tub, we decided to try sheets, and then mostly smaller items.. lol


Here is an after shot! We are going to be washing our t shirts and steaming my jeans today! on to laundry part two!


I have to say as well, by doing our laundry at home, we dont have a washer/dryer hookup in our apartment, we saved about $25! its not much, yet it got us really excited at all the opportunities we are going to have  to save money. We are going over our budget today to see what else we can cut down or replace with something we can create at home!

This is really exciting yall!

Christopher Weeks wrote:

Jack Sato wrote:would regular bar soap be fine?

These are the instructions Dr. Bronners supplies for using their bar soap for laundry: https://www.drbronner.com/pages/castile-bar-soap-dilutions-guide#second-heading

I bet just washing yourself while trodding on your clothes would get them pretty clean. You'd need to spend some extra time rinsing and then figure out how to dry, but that's all doable.

Yes, when I lived in an apt without access to a washing machine, I made my showers double-duty laundry time!

if you can keep up with the clothes as you dirty them, you should be fine doing them in the shower. I have heard of people washing the clothes in the shower as they wear them as well (then taking them off for a normal shower).
It's when they pile up that it turns into a horrible chore.
Just hanging can be good too. For many years I lived in places without facilities and didn't have money for laundromat, so I've washed clothes in dorm sinks, bathtubs, etc. As an adult I have tried every permutation of this dance over the years, with and without machines. It was all fine til I had kids and the quantities just exploded. At that point I bought a small apartment-sized portable (had to keep it secret from the landlady) but still hung it all in my apartment.
Having some sort of water extractor seems critical- a roller or a spinner, usually.

Sorry, you asked about soap. I often just used what I had (body soap, shampoo, etc-- living in dorms there was usually a years worth of lost-and-found supplies available at the end of the school year, I'd hoard that). Later I used dish soap. I don't think I ever thought about laundry-specific soap until I bought a washing machine.

Catie George wrote:


12) If required,  repeat steps 1-11, because you discover that things didn't dry soon enough  (especially if drying indoors) and things became musty smelling, so you need to rewash!

I had seen this in the past. When I started hand washing last year, I tried adding a tiny pinch of baking soda to the final rinse and it no longer got musty. It may be different depending on your water, and too much will make your clothes stiff. In my situation it made sense to use the radiant heat from the sun to dry clothes while avoiding getting rained on, and some days that would take a while. With the baking soda I never had to rewash.

I definitely noticed the machines are so wild these days with settings that don't necessarily function the way the manuals marketing describes. Plus sometimes not programmed well at all causing errors and generally not cleaning all that well. I feel like the old washing machine idea is flawed and maybe there are better solutions to the way it can be done.

I'm not sure why I didn't see it this way sooner, but that clothes press looks a bit like a board thickness planer. You could possibly buy a used one really cheap and use that as a base to build one if you can't afford a new one. A planer sled with clothes coming out would look really funny, but it could work!