How My Laundry is Cleaner Because of Pinterest

As we all know Pinterest is just a wee bit addicting. Pretty pictures, DIY projects and a whole lot of recipes to help you forget your New Year's diet resolution. Most of my Boards have to do with home decorating and entertaining, but I do like scour out cleaning and organizing ideas since it's an area I appreciate, but none too keen on.

So it was a delight when I stumbled on a zillion homemade laundry detergent recipes.  Since I do try to be frugal and am conscious of  chemical loaded stuff, I thought I could do this!  I looked at a bunch of the recipes and came up with my own mix.  I've already made a batch and I have to say - My wash is super clean and smells fabulous.

I scouted out all the Products at Target including the jumbo sized covered glass canister (kitchen supply isle.) From home you'll need a kitchen box grater, a large mixing spoon and a scoop of some sort - I grabbed one of my vintage Fiestaware coffee cups.  The essential oil can be purchased at   (C.O. Bigelow - Essential Oil - Lavender )






All the ingredients are "old school" washing products found in any grocery store.

1.) 1 Box Borax (20 Mule Team)
2.) 1 Box Washing Soda (Arm & Hammer)
3.) 3 Bars Laundry Bar Soap (Fels-Naptha)
4.) Essential Oil

Use 1/2 cup per load.

Homemade Laundry Detergent Ingredients

Once you've gathered your ingredients the process is simple.  Grate the bar soap. I used the cheese side of the grater. The soap is pretty soft, so to fine grate it would make a mess.

Grate Fels-Naptha laundry soap with kitchen grater.

Clean canister and dry well.  Add powdered ingredients and mix well with large spoon. I found it easier to mix in layers tan try to dump everything in at once. I then added some of the essential oil and mixed again.  Start with a few drops and increase to your desired scent.  The 1st time I made a batch I used Tea Tree Oil, this last batch I used Lavender Oil.

Mix powder ingredients well with large spoon.

The added grated bar soap to canister and mix.  For this step I just dug in with my hands and mixed well.  

Grated Fels Naptha Laundry Soap

To style the canister, I had some left-over chalk board wall decal - So I just cut out a label with my Pinking sheers and wrote out the label in chalk.  The soapy canister looks sassy on my laundry room counter and with just a scoop makes my laundry squeaky clean and fresh!

Homemade Laundry Detergent