Making Our Own Laundry Detergent

When we think of laundry we think of washing off germs and staying healthy. We aren't usually thinking that we are putting toxins in our clothes (that in most cases are already made out of toxic materials). And we aren't really thinking that we are putting anything down the drain other than germs and soil. When we run the dryer all we think about is getting our clothes dry on time and them smelling good, we aren't thinking about the potential toxins that are leaking into our house and into the air we breath.

There are alternatives out there. In fact, there are quite a few green alternatives out there to buy and use with much less toxins in there. Some of my favorite brands of green cleaning products are Method and Seventh Generation. They use stuff that is safer for use and for the planet. The only problem is the packaging. Recycling is better than nothing but it is still not great.

Something else we are trying, along with not using any packaging by buying at farmer's markets, is to make some of our own cleaning products and avoid the packaging all together.

To make our own powdered detergent, we used two cups of finely grated castile soap (which is made from olive oil), a cup of washing soda, and a cup of borax. We mixed them up and keep them in a sealed reusable airtight container. We had an old protein scoop that is 4 tablespoons so we threw it in to use half a scoop per load. We had a bit of fun together grating the soap bars on an old cheese grater that we had.

After our first wash we sniffed and sniffed but we couldn't find any trace of stink, there is a light soap smell but not much of one. Our clothes are clean, we don't have much packaging to recycle (we will eventually empty the washing soda and borax containers and recycle them but we can buy the soap with no packaging, to et around being wasteful we just buy the borax, washing soda, and baking soda in bulk), and we are not adding a bunch of toxins to our clothes.

For further reading on toxic chemicals in your laundry check this out:

Are You Poisoning Your Household With this Chore?

For a few recipes for making your own liquid or powder detergents check this out:

Make Your Own Laundry Soap