Homemade Laundry/Dishwasher Detergent

I made my first batch of homemade dishwasher detergent a few days ago and made my first batch of laundry detergent today. Since I haven't actually used it yet I guess I can't really officially weigh in on how the laundry detergent works, but I have no reason to think it won't be just fine. I'm really not that picky about laundry soap. The dishwasher detergent worked great. Honestly. I couldn't tell a bit of difference between loads washed with store-bought and homemade.

So why do it? As I posited in my first blog post about going green, I think there is often an environmental and economic advantage to making smarter, more eco-friendly choices. This is definitely the case with making homemade laundry/dishwasher detergent, particularly if you are inclined to buy eco-friendly detergents. Alas, sometimes it can be tempting to save some money and buy the cheapy, harmful detergents. To escape the moral dilemma, it's easiest to both save money and reduce one's harmful footprint.

So without further ado, how is it done?

There are a ridiculous number of recipes for both types of detergent, but I used this to make the laundry (I used Ivory soap) and this to make the dishwasher. If these don't seem to work for you, or you are interested in looking at some other recipes, you can check out this site for different ideas on laundry detergent. I also came across this recipe on soulemama and I really liked how easy it was. I think I might skip the liquid recipe I used this time for my laundry soap and give this a try next time.

So how economical is it really? It depends on what type of detergent you're interested in using. Since I'm interested in using "green" soap, I compared my prices to eco-friendly soaps I found on costco.com. A 150 oz container of Seventh Generation laundry detergent goes for about $24.99 a pop. For my laundry detergent I bought a big stock pot for $12 so I could easily melt my ingredients, which added greatly to my costs. I also, of course, bought washing soda, borax and ivory soap. My upfront cost ended up being $22.16 with tax and I filled a 150 oz countainer. I predict I'll most likely get 5-7 more batches from what I already bought, so you do the math.

For dishwasher soap, Seventh Generation detergent goes for $5.09 without tax for a 45 oz container. My upfront cost for homemade ingredients ended up being $8.77 with tax, not including the vinegar (which will last me for probably 6 months). This one is a bit trickier to calculate, since I don't have a handy-dandy way of measuring what I made (I'm using an old yogurt container to store it in), but the yogurt container holds 32 oz. and I made enough to fill 1/4 (so about 12.8 oz) of the container. I predict I'll probably get 6-8 equally-sized batches out of what I bought for $8.77 (but since borax is called for in both recipes, my numbers might be a bit off). Not to get too math-eager (not to mention boring) but if I make 6 batches of 12.8 oz, I'm able to make 76.8 oz for $8.77 and it costs about .11 per ounce of dishwasher soap, almost exactly what it costs per ounce of Seventh Generation. However, these are only predictions, and we'll have to see what I'm able to make with the ingredients I've got.

I hope this post wasn't absolutely dull, but since I know some people who are interested in making the switch I thought I'd post and fill you in. Happy washing!