Homemade Laundry Liquid Recipe

This laundry liquid recipe comes from a book called Organic at Home, I picked it up many years ago at a garage sale, and I’m so glad I did. You can use this mixture for any kind of washing machine or for hand-washing. A note, though, it isn’t good at taking out grease. So, if you have oily, greasy clothes I suggest you also use a stain remover like borax in your washing or pre-soak the clothes in it. To make the borax solution, mix 1/4 cup borax with 2 cups of water.

Homemade Laudry Liquid:

• 1/4 cup pure soap, grated

• 5 liters/10.5 pints of cold water

• 1/2 cup soda washing crystals**

• 1.5 teaspoons of tea tree oil or eucalyptus oil

• 1/4 cup white vinegar

• a few drops of essential oil of choice (lemon or lavender are nice)

• 4.5 liters/9.5 pints of hot water

Grate the soap into a pot on the stove and add 1 liter/4 cups of cold water, then bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and immediately add the soda washing crystals and stir until completely dissoved. Next, add the eucalyptus or tea tree oil, vinegar and essential oil, if using, and stir well.

Pour this mixture into a large bucket, then add the hot water (4.5 liters). Stir this well to mix through; now, add the remaining cold water (4 liters). Mix well. Allow this to sit until cool. Place a lid on top and store near your washing machine.

Use 2 cups of the liquid per wash.

**soda washing crystals or powder is sodium carbonate, it is used as a water softener and for general cleaning, and it’s inexpensive; it is also safe for septic tanks

It’s really quite easy to make and when my kids were little they used to like helping me with it (I think because the bucket was huge to them, standing at half their height!). I didn’t allow them to add or mix in the soda crystals, though, because they can make the mixture bubble up and spill out of the pot if you don’t stir them in well enough.

I also used this mixture once or twice in the kitchen, but I have to say it isn’t as good as detergent (detergent is different than soap) at taking the grease off plates; everything still felt oily to me.

Enjoy - Nx