Other recipes I’ve seen for homemade laundry detergent are more work-intensive. I’m lazy efficient, so I cut out the extra steps and still end up with a product that works just fine.

Ingredients and Supplies:

Old empty liquid laundry bottle (the BIG one, if you have it, so you don’t have to make it so often) or some other large, lidded container

some liquid castile soap, or grated up bar soap of your choice

Washing Soda (NOT baking soda. they are NOT the same thing)

Borax

Tap water

essential oils (not…you know…essential to this, but just if you want to add some scent. I usually don’t)

Method:

The liquid castile soap makes this much easier, but if you have bar soap that will be fine too. You just have to grate it up and stir it into a little water on low heat (do NOT boil it–trust me on that one) on the stove until it’s dissolved.

For my “economy” or “family sized” detergent bottle (mine says that holds 150 fluid oz.), I use about a quarter cup liquid castile soap, 1/4 cup borax, and 1/2 cup washing soda. I funnel all these things into the bottle, then add the hottest tap water I can, filling the container up only a little. Cap and shake gently to combine (otherwise BUBBLES), then fill it up the rest of the way. You can let it sit for a few minutes if you like before filling it the rest of the way so some of the bubbles will go down leaving more room for water.

Let this set up for a couple of days before you use it, and gently shake it (turn it upside-down a couple of times) whenever you think about it.

It’s really that easy.