Homemade Soap

When D and I decided we were going to cloth diaper our little man, I knew I had to do my research on how to properly clean the diapers and keep my washing machine in top status. I turned to a wonderful resource The Eco Friendly Family Blog. This blog answered all of my questions about baby laundry, cloth diapering, eco friendly products, and saving money! What a winning combination.

I already knew that it was important to use a fragrance/dye free soap for baby's clothes. But when researching the different brands of laundry detergent that fit the bill, I could not believe the cost. When I thought about how much money would be involved in just cleaning diapers, well, I wanted to find a solution and the EFF Blog gave me that answer -- Homemade laundry detergent, for the family and for diapers!

First I will show the laundry detergent for the family, then for diapers. The recipe is very simple:

3 Boxs Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (55 oz each)
2 Boxes 20 Mule Team Borax (76 oz each)
1 Large Tub OxiClean Free (96 oz)
24 Bars of Soap, finely grated

There are a few different options for the bar soap. I used Fels Naptha. I found it in my local Kroger and choose to use it because I always remember my mom talking about it when I was a kid. Also recommended by the EFF is ivory soap or Zote.

Yes, the recipe will make a very large batch of soap. But it will not go bad and you cannot beat the cost savings or the cleaning power!

Making the soap: Grind up the bars of soap.

Fels Naptha Soap



I choose to to use a cheese grater as a first stage grinding.


And began grating my bars of soap, and there is a lot of soap!


Grating the soap isn't the final step. I wanted to have my soap bits be closer to the same size as the other ingredients in the recipe, which are all white powders. This will give me a better mix of ingredients so I have the same amount of each ingredient in every scoop. It was recommended to let the grated soap dry out for a few days in order to get a better grind. I spread it out on a few cookie sheets and let it set out to dry.

To achieve the powdery soap, I took the grated bits and put them in the blender


and you end up with a nice powdery soap


Now it is time to combine the ground soap with the other three ingredients. One thing to note that I am using Washing Soda, not Baking Soda. While they are chemically close, washing soda is more basic and does a superior job at removing stains and odors. I am also using Oxy-Clean Free (fragrance and chlorine free).

Final product


I use two tablespoons for a load of laundry and it cleans our clothes wonderfully. But, I wanted to see how well it really cleaned clothes, so I took the dirtiest clothes we have - D's car maintenance clothes. These have grease stains, brake fluid, oil, sweat, garage grime.....you name it, and it has been embedded in these clothes over the last 5 years. I put in three tables spoons to tackle this mess and put it on my heavy duty washing cycle. (I wish I would have taken a before and after picture.) It is the first time in years his you could tell his black and white plaid shirt, was actually black and white, instead of black and off black. 90% of all of the stains on his jeans were gone. D was shocked and is my biggest supporter for this laundry soap. I will have to get before and after pictures to show the cleaning power of this recipe. Thank you EFF!!


Cloth Diapers!!

At the same time I made the laundry soap recipe, I made the cloth diaper soap recipe. (recipe from the Eco Friendly Family Blog)

3 Boxes Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (55 oz each)
2 Boxes 20 Mule Team Borax (76 oz each)
1 Large Tub OxiClean Free (96 oz)

Now you may be saying.....wait a minute....this looks almost like the identical recipe, minus the grated soap - and you would be right!

Now I took a short cut after seeing the similarity in the two recipes (especially since I knew I wanted to use both of them for baby). I mixed the 3 white ingredients together in the portions specified in the recipes (3 boxes, 2 boxes, 1 tub). Then I split this mixture in 1/2 . Half of it went into a tub marked Diapers, and the other half went into a tub marked Laundry. To the Laundry tub I added 1/2 of the required grated soap, since I only had 1/2 of the other ingredients.

The current recommended usage of the diaper detergent is to use 1 tablespoon for a cold wash/rinse and 1 tablespoon for a hot wash/rinse. Since my little man is not here yet, I have not tried the recipe. But I am sure things will work out wonderfully.

I will post more laundry tips/tricks as I learn myself :) Happy cleaning!