I’ve been trying to slowly switch to more natural products in my home. Since I’m a single mom with 4 eternally hungry preteens and teens and who just so happens to be in grad school, I’m not exactly rolling in the dough. So, while I would love to switch to all organic products, I have had to be selective in my endeavors. I started with cleaning and personal products. I have had a few victories in personal products but have really hit it out of the park in cleaning products. But my favorite, by far, is my laundry detergent recipe. I no longer buy laundry detergent, even when it’s a totally awesome sale (because great sale prices do not make the chemicals in the commercial detergent go away). Instead, I use this recipe:
Homemade Organic (at times) Laundry Detergent
16 cups Baking Soda (not quite one of the giant bags from Sam’s Club)
12 cups Washing Soda (2 boxes)
8 cups grated Castile Soap or a combo of Castile and Fels Naptha (4 bars total)
The original recipe calls for lavender essential oil but I skipped this due to our allergy problem. I use my food processor with the grating blade to grate the soap. The added bonus is that my food processor is sparkling clean after I wash it up. 
Mix it up and store it in a sealed container. The powder can be a little irritating to breathe so go hog wild mixing it up. I usually mix it a bit then close the lid and give it a few shakes. Depending on how dirty your laundry is, use 1/8 to ¼ cup per load.
We live on a farm which means that directly following winter is Mud Season. During the muddy spring, I use 3 bars of Dr. Bronners and 1 bar of Fels Naptha.
I bought my ingredients bulk through Wal-Mart and Amazon or at Wegman’s. The final cost was $22.59 and it lasted us approximately 3 ½ months.
Many thanks to Evelyn at Delightful Creations for the original recipe. You can check out her blog here.
Gabrielle Briar 
Well written 🙂 Thanks for sharing . Nice post overalln
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Hi 🙂
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Years ago I researched similar laundry detergent recipes and settled on a simple version of my own. I mix equal parts of baking soda, washing soda, and borax. I pour them a cup at a time into a plastic canister, seal the lid well, and then turn the canister over and around until the powders mix together. I toss in about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of this powder mixture, then I pour a few drops of liquid Casteel soap into the washer.
I put a little white vinegar into a Downy fabric softener ball to freshen the rinse water. Using tea tree scented liquid soap, combined with the vinegar rinse, surprisingly leaves a subtle citrus scent on the clean clothing. The tea tree is a good germ killer.
Isn’t it wonderful, all the great homemade cleaning recipes you can make? I clean my entire house with water, vinegar, baking soda, borax, and sometimes a little rubbing alcohol, peroxide, or bleach. I use peppermint essential oil to freshen the house, since my allergies won’t allow me to use anything else with fragrances.
Sorry this is so long–as you can tell, I really enjoy making natural products for my family! Have a great day!
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