Homemade Laundry Detergent 2.0

About a year ago I wrote a post about how to make laundry detergent at home.  I have used this recipe for over a year, and it works great!  I never did get around to trying Fels Naptha over the Ivory soap (that's what happens when you buy a 16 pack of soap) but I also never felt like there was much reason to mess with a recipe that works.

That being said, I appreciate the value of time, and 24 hours to make a batch of laundry soap (even if that's mostly "curing" time) seems a little silly.  And funneling the detergent into containers can get messy.  So I did some Googling, and found many websites and forums where people said you could just make the powder and not bother with the water and it would work just fine.  I figured this was worth a shot!

The ingredients are the same as in the original detergent recipe, except for the water.  If you have a food processor, it Really comes in handy (especially if you have a grating blade for it).

The Process:
Grate your soap (use 1 bar of ivory or 1/2 bar of Fels Naptha)
Put grated soap in food processor, pulse a few times.
Add 1/2 cup washing soda and 1/2 cut borax to the food processor
Pulse a few times until everything is well mixed.

This recipe easily doubles, so if you like it you can easily make more, less often.

To Use:
Use 1-2 teaspoons for an HE washer, or 2-3 teaspoons for a regular washer.

The Results:
This detergent works just as well as the liquid/gel, and is Much faster/easier to make!  I do, however, recommend keeping some of the liquid/gel on hand and using it for cold water washes, reserving the powder for warm and hot washes since it may not fully dissolve in cold water.  Depending on your washer this may be totally unnecessary.  I store my powder in a clean plastic peanut butter jar.  I threw in a silica pack to help keep the powder from clumping from moisture and that seems to work just fine.

Also, the cost breakdown is the same, since the amount of powder you use per load is equivalent to the gel.  This means each batch of laundry detergent, enough for 32-64 loads (depending on the type/efficiency of your washer and soil level of your clothes), costs only $1.90.