Are you looking for an easy homemade laundry detergent recipe? We at Kids Activities blog have been making this Laundry Paste Recipe one for awhile now, it’s simple and chemical free! I love that I know exactly what is going on my kid’s clothing. So much easier on their delicate skin than the store-bought rough stuff.
Laundry Paste:
Some of these ingredients might look a bit unfamiliar, but you can grab them at most grocery stores, or on Amazon. They even have a value pack on Amazon where you can buy all three ingredients together. (affiliate links)
- 1 Cup of Borax
- 1 Cup Washing Soda
- Bar Fels Naptha
- 4 cups of water
- 2 – quart size mason jars
- 10 Drops of Lavender Oil
- 5 Drops of Thieves Essential Oil
- 5 Drops of Melaleuca Essential Oil
Homemade Laundry Detergent
We love using Essential Oils in our home! These oils are part of the Premium Essential Oil Kit and are great at adding scent without adding chemicals to your life. These oils are 100% pure and smell great!
Put the water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. As you wait for the water to come to a boil, stir together the borax and washing soda. Set this mixture aside and grate the bar of fels naptha.
When the water starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium and dump the grated fels naptha into the water. Stir it constantly, it will take a good amount of time for the soap to completely dissolve into the hot water.
When the fels naptha has completely dissolved turn off the stove and remove the pan from heat. Add the powered mixture immediately. Stir until the mixture becomes smooth. It’s important that all the powder dissolves entirely. You don’t want grainy soap on your hands. This will take a lot of mixing while the water is still hot.
When the mixture is completely smooth, pour it evenly between the two quart size mason jars. Add water from the sink to fill the jar up to the top of the wide part of the jar.
Put the lids on the jars and seal them tightly. You are going to turn them upside down next and you don’t want any spilling! Let them sit upside down for the afternoon. The ingredients will separate – dump it into a blender and add your essential oils, or what we do is add the essential oils and whisk the ingredients firmly. Ours is a bit chunkier as we don’t use a blender, but it works fine!
For specific tips see the post that inspired this recipe – she has tips on what to do if your recipe has “glitches”.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
You can pour the contents back into quart size jars and store them by your washing machine. Add one tablespoon to the wash on top of your clothes. You can make this in advance and store it as long as you want! It is also safe for use with cloth diapers!
Love this recipe for Homemade Laundry Detergent? Check out the collection of Homemade Cleaners – lots of other ways you can DIY for less money and with less chemicals!
Do you want to learn more about Essential Oils? There are so many benefits to using them, and you can find out more information about how to get started with Essential Oils by following this link here.
I’m a huge fan of Thieves so it wasn’t surprising to see this in the ingredients.
We go through so much detergent that I would love to make it here.
Oh my goodness, I am SUCH a huge fan of Thieves. I keep it burning in my diffuser constantly.
How does this work on stains and different colors
Can I use this detergent in a high efficient (HE) washing machine!
Yes you can. You just add it to the top of the clothes instead. Have used it in he machines with no problem just never add to the compartment.
This is my question also.
The recipe includes the eo’s but the directions doesn’t indicate that they were added along with the other ingredients. I assume you wait until the mixture is cooled before adding the oils..
You are correct! I added the change in the post to show that you add the essential oils after the mixture has cooled and before you blend everything together and store. Hope that helps, and thanks for sharing!
About how many loads does this recipe do?
I haven’t gotten the Thieves oil yet, would it matter much if I just used the lavendar and melaluca? I want to get the thieves, but I’m not sure I want to wait to make this! 🙂 I also have DoTerra’s OnGuard… maybe I could substitute that? Not sure how that smell would work.
I think you could use one or all together. I am not sure about adding the DoTerra in, I am not familiar with them.
So I just made half this recipe. How full do you fill the mason jars with water? I put it in the blender but am not sure I blended it long enough. It’s more like cool whip than paste?
Also does it have to go on top of the load? I start the water add soap then clothes
Add it on top of your clothes 🙂
Fels Naptha & borax both are pretty toxic. You could replace these with a bar of pure unscented Castile soap and oxiclean baby granules and have a much healthier product 🙂