Liquid Laundry Soap. Looking for recipe

sweetcindylou · Mar 19, 2013

Hi Everyone!

I thought I would start a post in hopes that maybe someone has a good liquid laundry soap recipe. I have looked on the net a bit and have found some that look okay but was interested in knowing what some of you use.

I want it to be as biodegradable and eco-friendly/people safe that it can possibly be so would like to use mostly naturally derived ingredients.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Cindy

lsg · Mar 26, 2013

There are several recipes for liquid laundry soap and for dry laundry soap. I have tried a couple of liquid soap recipes using my 100% coconut soap, washing soda, borax, e.o. etc. With our hard water neither worked well for me.

jessicascandles · Mar 26, 2013

The recipe I use is 6 Tablespoons Washing Soda, 6 Tablespoons Borax, and 6 Tablespoons Dawn to one gallon of water. I usually use 1/8 to 1/4 cup per load. I really like it, it works just as much as the expensive laundry detergent we were buying from the store.

lsg · Mar 26, 2013

That might work OK for me as Dawn contains surfactants that work well in hard water. I would probably use more Dawn though.

Smee · Mar 26, 2013

Hi Cindy, hope you don't mind if I read over your shoulder as I am also in
search of a good liquid laundry soap.

I'm staring at a can of walmart shortening and a box of lard, wondering
if I could make a liquid soap out of them and combine that with washing
soda and borax...? I have a HE front-loader and a septic system so
low suds is a must-have.
Otherwise, it's going to be more bars to grate :roll:

Divadoll · Mar 30, 2013

I used to make liquid laundry soap from 1 bar ivory soap, 1 cup borax and 1 cup washing soda and enough water to fill a 96 load laundry soap container. It worked well for a while but residue in the soap causes the whites to turn grey and the elasticity to loosen. I find that the clothes don't clean as well as they would from commercially purchased laundry soap. I also made liquid soap from scratch using oils but it is too harsh for clothes, it wears out colours and also greys whites.

Liquid soap works really well for hand wash dish soap. You can use the shortening and lard to make really good dish soap. Make sure you use the appropriate lye for liquid soap..potassium hydrochloride not sodium hydrochloride.

I've gone back to buying laundry soap, it isn't worth the savings if my clothing are being sacrificed for it.

If you use bar soap, throw it in the microwave for 2 minute. It causes the bar to puff up, when it cools, you can crumble the bar with your bare hand and no grating necessary.