One of the biggest costs that a family can have is the cost of clothing and laundry and one of the best ways to save money on laundry is by making your own homemade laundry detergent. There are several different detergent recipes floating around including THIS homemade powdered detergent recipe and THIS homemade laundry detergent with Castile soap, but for some people the convenience of laundry tablets is more appealing than the savings. If you’re one of those people, making your own homemade laundry detergent tablets isn’t as hard as you might think and the savings makes it all worth it.
As I said, these homemade laundry detergent tablets will save you quite a bit on your detergent costs and unlike my other homemade detergent recipes, this one is a Borax free homemade laundry detergent. You can get several batches out of the ingredients you may have to buy which means that overall, your cost per load will end up being pennies on the dollar. Since these have both washing soda and white vinegar in them, they also clean extremely well. You will also be using essential oils to scent them and since you can use any scent you choose, they are extremely personalized! That is one of the reasons that I love making my own homemade cleaning products so much! I can make them like I want them!
Homemade Laundry Detergent Tablets
When you make these, it doesn’t matter which brand of essential oils you use as long as the oils are 100% pure essential oils. There is no such thing as a therapeutic grading and since the Federal government doesn’t regulate that term, anyone can use it. You should be careful though since anyone can call their oil therapeutic including those oils that are cut with a carrier or worse. In my case, I prefer to use Plant Therapy Essential Oils. I love that they are pure oils without being cut and that they are so much more affordable than other oils. NOW Foods brand essential oils are another one that I personally like and will use.
You Will Need:
- 1 cup Super washing soda
- 1/4 Zote soap bar, shredded
- 1/4 cup table Salt
- 20-30 drops essential oil of your choice
- 3-4 tablespoons white vinegar
- Silicone Ice Cub Trays
To prep for making these homemade laundry detergent tablets, grate 1/4 of the bar of Zote soap. If you can’t find Zote or would rather use something else, you can also use Ivory bar soap or Fels Naptha soap. There are a ton of ways to use Fels Naptha and laundry is just one of them.
Also, don’t confuse Super Washing Soda with baking soda. They are NOT the same thing. Super Washing Soda is found in the laundry detergent aisle near where Zote and Fels Naptha will be.
Once the bar soap is grated, combine the soap, washing soda and table salt in a medium mixing bowl and stir with your hands until it is well combined. Add 20-30 drops of essential oil and use your hands to mix it in as well. You may get clumps from the oil. If that happens, just break them up as you find them.
You can use any scent that you want with this, but lavender oil, orange oil, and rose essential oil are all scents that wear well. You could even leave the scent out if you chose to!
Once you have the dry ingredients and oil mixed in, slowly add the vinegar until you get a thick consistency. You don’t want it to be super thick, but you don’t want it to be runny. It should clump together if you squeeze a bit of it. so if you need to use another tablespoon of vinegar or two, that is perfectly okay.
After the mixture is done, scoop the mixture into an ice cube tray. Firmly press down, add more to the top and press down again. Repeat this until the ice cube spots are full. Set it aside and let your homemade laundry detergent tablets dry overnight. The next morning, pop them out of the ice cube tray and store in an air tight container.
When you do laundry next, use your homemade laundry detergent tablets! Use 1 tablet for small or medium loads and 2 homemade laundry tablets for large loads. Once you’re done making these, why not make up our DIY Reusable Fabric Softener sheets while you’re at it?
