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Despite all the enthusiasm over making homemade laundry detergent recently…I continue to hear murmurings from those who just can’t bring themselves to grate soap and cook it on the stove.
It apparently just isn’t going to happen. :-)
I’m not naming any names…but my older sister would probably freely admit she didn’t decide to even attempt making her own laundry detergent UNTIL I told her about this “new” recipe I was testing out.
(I know it seems like I’m always “picking on” her…but she called me a “brat” on her blog recently…so she pretty much deserves it. lol).
Once again I have to credit the incredible readers of this blog for my inspiration.
Tiffanie posted this on February 4th….
A close friend of mine has been making laundry soap like this one for years, until just recently she found an easier one to make and passed it on to us.
3 Tablespoons Borax
3 Tablespoons Washing Soda
2 Tablespoons Dawn Dish soap
Put these ingredients in a one gallon jug. Pour 4 cups boiling water into the jug. Swirl until ingredients are dissolved in the liquid. Let liquid cool. Then fill almost to the top with cold water. The bubbles will overflow out of the bottle.
I love this because you can pick an awesome scent with the Dawn dish soap. This dish soap works the best because it gets grease out. :o)
As FOND as I am of the soap I’ve been using for over 8 months now…I felt I needed to at least give this version a fair shake. Sooo…I made up a gallon of it and have been using it for almost a week. I’ve used almost the entire gallon and despite my initial skepticism…I have not noticed any difference in it’s ability to get my clothes clean from my current recipe. I use approximately 1/2 cup to 1 cup per load. I know that sounds like a lot, but it’s pretty thin and since it’s SO easy and inexpensive to make, it doesn’t bother me.
Of course there are still those items of clothing that will need an extra boost with some “Homemade Shout” or “Homemade Oxi-Clean”….but overall I honestly haven’t noticed any difference in it’s cleaning ability.
For those of you concerned with HE washers…I haven’t noticed any more soap suds with this “recipe” either. On a small load I will notice some sudsing…but on a large load…it appears to me to be as low-suds as my previous version.
So….today I offer up this “new” version of homemade laundry detergent to those who have to this point been reluctant or unwilling to try making their own. A couple of things that might convince you to try…no grating of soap…no cooking…and you can make one gallon at a time in just a few minutes.
If you DO decide to try it…I would love to know what you think. :-)
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I had tried the grated soap version and found out I was allergic to the Fels Naptha bar soap. So I ended up using the Borax and Washing Soda for so many cleaning needs around the house, this has saved a lot of money over the year, I was very happy about that. I am will be trying your liquid version of laundry soap to see how that is for me. Thanks for sharing.
Add the Dawn dish soap at the very last and you have no bubbles to deal with.
Works great! I also notice that I no longer have the white residue on my clothes. Thanks so much!
Hi Jillee!
Im so excited! About a month ago we had a special guest speaker at our Woman’s gathering in one of friends home. We were going over great practical ideas, thoughts, and on how to organize tips.
The guest speaker came in to speak on DIY Cleaners and came bearing Gifts :) She brought each lady present a small sample Of DIY Laundry detergent. (it was the ingredients mixed together in a Ziploc bag with the Recipe and directions taped to it so we could go home and try it. So I DID. Well it was the same recipe as your No grate Laundry Detergent.
During that time i went on a mission on investigating on my own the many different recipes. And Came across your blog and decided to try your version.
SO I HAVE TRIED BOTH. And i actually prefer your version better.
Yes this No Grate version is SO SIMPLE.. Less work. I just feel your version one works better.
I did however add my own twist.. (im one of those who loves seeing suds.. i love bubbles lol)
I actually added 1/8 of a cup of Dawn into each Gallon of the 3 gallons of Your Version, as the last step Because i have read Dawn is an amazing grease fighter.. And i like it.
Not much different… but a little more suds.
Anyway just sharing my thoughts ALSO i Have NOTICED that they actually sell ZOTE (which is what i substituted for Naptha Already Grated!!! No grating just cooking now! Hopes this helps!
Thanks to Jillee for creating a wonderful blog.
I am on my second batch of this detergent recipe, and I have been noticing that some of my clothing has indeed faded since using this for my laundry. I wonder if it is because I have hard well water? I also have more ring around the washer tub. Does anyone have a similar effect? I am using less than 1/2 cup of liquid. I still love the over all cleaning effect, and will make a third batch.
where do you get the jug?
Am I the only one with this question but, where did you get your gallon containers. Love being able to see through the clear containers seeing the pretty blue detergent.
They are recycled orange juice containers :)
…just wondering if you halved the water content or doubled the other ingrediants if you could just use half the amount called for for each load – for a more concentrated version
I haven’t tried that so I can’t make any guarantees, but that would probably work.
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Can the Dawn be replaced with Castille soap? I’m looking for a more natural alternative, but I won’t be able to tackle the grating and cooking of the other recipe.
Would the 7th Generation dish soap work instead of Dawn??
Thanks.
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I LOVE this recipe…I have made the powdered version but this is so much easier. I used the Dawn Thai Dragonfruit and it smells great and cleans my clothes wonderfully. I made some last night for my mom and she was skeptical at first because she has an HE machine but it worked perfectly. Less suds but great cleaning power! Thank you Jillee for this great post :)
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Do you put the solution into the soap dispenser or directly into the tub?
do you have a version for HE washers?
This works in HE washers.
I just want you all to know who Dawn is:
Please read what this product contains:
and use Animal testings.
http://forcechange.com/56884/remove-toxic-chemicals-from-dawn-dish-soap/comment-page-1/
Is there any reason that oxiclean could not be added to this liquid detergent recipe?
I might be wrong on this, but I don’t think oxiclean would remain effective if you mixed it in to this detergent. You would either need to add it to each load or make my dry detergent.
I would use castile unscented soap instead of dawn. Completely natural and add any flavor of essential oils from http://www.doterra.myvoffice.com/maleesimpson/ Strongest essentials oils I have ever used!
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This recipe looks great! WHAT AMAZES ME THOUGH is the amount of people asking “how much do I use per load”? Are you kidding me? I hope you’re not the same people home schooling your children. YIKES!
Tammy, the people who keep asking the same questions over and over are probably the same people who were educated in the public schools. Feel better?
Hi, I have finally decided to take on the making of my own detergent like so many of my friends are doing. I came across your no grate detergent and that is what made me decide to do it. I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS THO, how is the amounts determined? Would it do affect anyting with less or more water? The reason I ask is when you mentioned how much thinner it was, so i wondered if could add less water to make thicker? LOL the other reason is I decided to double recipe, BUT after the fact, I see my containers are 1.32 gallon!! LOL! thank you
I tried this recipe last night and I didn’t really like it. I was really bummed about it, too, because I love your site and all your recipes! Maybe I did it wrong, but all my clothes just came out smelling like dish soap, and none of the stains came out, even with pre-treating them. I’m actually going to try a dry soap recipe tonight and re-wash that load. I really hate the smell! Any ideas as to what might have gone wrong? Thanks!
I also add 3 Tbls. of liquid fabric softener and 3 Tbls. of Oxi-Clean to the mix. That way I’ve got everything in there that I need. Thanks for your great money and time-saving “recipes”.
I wouldn’t promote Dawn dish soap. Dawn dish soap is bad for the environment contains chemicals that link to breast cancer and hormone disruption, and they owned by Proctor and Gamble which test on animals.
Better choices:
Seventh Generation…which comes in great smells like:
Lavender Floral and Mint
Fresh citrus and Ginger
Lemongrass and Clementine
Method…..which comes in great smells like:
cucumber
sea minerals
clementine
pink grapefruit
lemon mint
fresh currant
ginger yuzu
Just a thought..:)
I love this recipe! I use Dawn “blue” for everything. I am an Extreme Couponer, so I get this stuff for about $0.25 a bottle! I have always used whatever bar soap I could find for as close to free as possible. This is such a better idea than grating those bars of soap! I don’t have a food processor so that is not an option.
What types of jugs are those? They are really neat. I love that they are clear.
Thanks for the great blog.
Tried this and works great! The only other thing I did was …. I had made my own “Febreeze”. I had some left over after filling my bottle so I added it to the laundry mixture. So now it has a great smell and just a touch of softener to it.
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I LOVE this recipe!! I made my first batch about 4 months ago. I was hesitant to try a homemade laundry soap, and after making up a batch, I still didn’t feel much better about it. But I figured at worst, I would re-wash the load with my Tide, and since I had all the ingredients on hand, why not give it a shot. Wowza, I was impressed. I was a bit sad that my Dawn New Zealand scent didn’t carry over too much, but then I found your other post on adding Downy Un-stoppables, so I gave that a try. I was sold. I will never ever go back to buying over priced laundry soap again!!! I’m already on my 3rd batch and get excited every time I get to make more batches, I’m also going to give the concentrated version a try too! Now I’m trying to decide if I want to make wool dryer balls or the homemade fabric softer!!
I also wanted to add that my husband who doesn’t give two cents about chemicals or anything like that just shook his head at me when I made my first batch (his way of saying I’m trying something crazy!!) Well I am happy to report, that even tho he still isn’t sold on the homemade laundry soap, I have asked him on several occasions if he can tell which clothes I wash in this and which ones in Tide. He swears he can tell a difference… but I haven’t used Tide in over 4 months, pretty sure he has nothing that has been washed in Tide!! :-) Thanks so much for all your helpful and wonderful tips!
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For those of you that don’t like to grate soap, Walmart sells Zote Flakes which is the Zote Bar Laundry Soap already thinly grated so it dissolves faster. It’s great on either liquid or dry soap recipes.
Jillie my husband does most of the laundry around here and this is his favorite soap recipe as well as mine. Probably since blue Dawn is my absolute favorite for cleaning everything
Is there a substitute for the Dawn dish soap? Something with less chemicals in it? I like the recipe we use now but I hate grating soap so i like the idea of not having to do that step.
You can use whatever liquid soap you would like – I just like Dawn the best.
This is my first time ever making homemade laundry soap……..I am making the liquid laundry soap version as we speak……..Wish me luck……..I am so excited to see how this stuff turns out and works.
Is this recipe supposed to thicken at all? I made it 2 days ago, and it doesn’t seem to be getting very thick.
Nope! It will stay very thin.
If you are tired of grating, Ive heard you can use the food processor. cut the bar in smaller chunks then process….
Hmm, could you just put less water in it and use less? I have extreme space limits.
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I wonder if you could add liquid shout or resolve to it as an extra stain fighter. So far I love this recipe, but I still use oxiclean with it, because my kids are always a mess lol
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madam,i “m in India and want your formula in powder (dry)form.Pls help
love it……easy and quick to make. Haven’t bought store soap in over 3 months and still have enough ingredients to make soap for the rest of the year other than the dawn .
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Is this safe to use on all laundry? I worry the borax will damage my work clothes. I work in an office so I have dress clothes.
I don’t know I anyone has suggested it yet but I put my dish soap in after I fill the gallon with water. Then you can shake it and you don’t have all the suds spilling out.
Thank’s sooo much for the *helpful tip* I did it this way & it was alot easier.
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THANK YOU SOOO MUCH for posting this “NON GRATING” recipe. I’ve always used Dawn Original to wash my dishes as I hate re-washing dishes by hand over and over again. Plus being raised with 5 other siblings washing dishes was a time consuming chore, lol. Well my husband is a Fuel Truck Driver and he constantly deals with oil, gas and diesel. This is the only thing that’ll give a him a good cleaning of his hands and arms as soon as he gets in the door. I will definitely going to give this a go and for trying this as 1 gallon run, it’s worth the price for me as a buy the BIG original Dawn from Costco anyways. Thank you sooo much again.
Hey! I have made about 4 batches and love it but sometimes my daughters soiled clothes still smell a tad bit after washing would you reccomend using a oxi clean? Need some ideas