Homemade Laundry Detergent

For over a year I've been using homemade laundry detergent and I've been happy with the results (and the savings!), so here is a short post about my system. I use the Duggar Family Recipe for liquid detergent. I found all the ingredients at our local Winco (a few bucks buys not only everything you need, but enough to make several batches worth) and I store the concentrate in a 5 gallon bucket (which it fills about halfway when first made).

I made my original batch over a year ago, and have not had to make a second batch yet, so I'm really pleased that I'm not constantly having to grate and melt soap bars to have detergent handy. I found this cute blog post on what making the concentrate should look like. It wasn't that difficult or time-consuming, but it's also nice that you don't have to do it very often. I can't say I notice a difference between this and the store-bought detergents I used to get. I still need to pre-treat stains, but even Lily's clothes (our messiest eater) come out looking perfectly clean to me.

This is my concentrate. The 5 gallon bucket is a bit of a pain to open (you have to use the special wrench to get the lid off), but I like that it seals so no kids can get in and hardly any moisture can escape.

I use an Ikea measuring spoon to measure out my laundry detergent (a fourth cup from a front-loading washing machine). I rinse it out after each use to prevent the soap from building up.

It just so happened I needed to refill my detergent container, so I made a brief video (less than 3 1/2 minutes) showing how it all looks when you actually mix it  (with a brief cameo by Lily).