Homemade Dishwasher Detergent and Laundry Detergent

Hello everyone!

Recently, Amulet informed me that we were running out of dishwasher detergent and laundry detergent:  

What a perfect opportunity to put my Pinterest action to good use

 and make these two detergents at home!!

Another reason I thought it was a good time to try this was the fact that Abers was visiting!

Our conversation went something like this,

J: Abers, you wanna help me make homemade laundry detergent?

A:  Oh My God...  Are we going to blow something up trying to do this?

If I die making laundry detergent, I'm so going to kill you in the afterlife.

But don't worry, the making of these detergents didn't include any dangerous activities,
they aren't dangerous to the environment,

and they were actually super easy to make!

For the dishwasher detergent, we used this recipe exactly.

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cup of Lemi-Shine (1 12 oz container of Lemi-Shine. it comes in powder form)

1 1/2 cup of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

1/2 Cup Arm and Hammer Baking Soda

1/2 Cup Salt  (we used the pickling salt)

and some white vinegar as the rinse agent.

I found all of these at the local Wal-Mart because Target didn't have some of the items.

Once you measure it all out, mix it all together!

(except for the vinegar, this goes into the rinse compartment in your dishwasher)

Abers hard at work  haha

and VOILA!!

SO. EASY!

I put them into a spaghetti sauce jar, and the Lemi-Shine container.

yay for recycling?  haha

To do the dishes, we just dump some into the detergent compartment,

but the original recipe is more exact in telling us to use 2 Tbs of it per load.

Of course, don't forget the vinegar as the rinse aid!

I'm happy to report that our dishes have been coming out crystal clear every time!  =)

For the laundry detergent, I did some research and came up with a modified version of my own.

I wanted it to be a dry detergent because liquid ones required me to melt things over fire and,

well, you know...

Abers was going to kill me in the afterlife if we got blown up while making some detergent..   haha

So here's the Laundry Detergent Recipe

Ingredients

1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax

1 (3 lb 7 oz) box of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 box of Laundry Zote Soap Flakes (2 bars worth)

1 (4 lb) box of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda

and again, some white vinegar for the rinsing cycle.

Again, we found all of these ingredients at Wal-Mart in the detergent aisle

The process is super easy for this as well.

You just mix it all together!

(minus the vinegar)

However, because there are much more ingredients to mix,

we would recommend pouring a little bit of each ingredient at a time and mixing them up in stages.

Even when we did this, by the time we got to the last layer of the mixture, 

it was pretty difficult to mix it all together...

mixing stages...  the 4th stage gave me a pretty good arm workout..  haha

And then, Voila!

It made so much, but I put some into a smaller bottle for easier access.

I put in about 2-3 spoonfuls of the detergent per load, depending on the size of the load.

Oh, and I also put in a bit of vinegar (1 spoonful) as well,

and I promise the clothes didn't come out smelling vinegary.

They say that vinegar is really good for disinfecting,

and I'm again happy to report that our clothes came out fresh and clean!!

I also read that you could put in a couple of drops of essential oils,

but when I tried that, my clothes didn't end up smelling like anything,

so I'm not sure I will continue to add the essential oils...

The clothes don't come out smelling like 'spring meadow' or whatever else the store bought ones claim to make your clothes smell like,

but it does come out smelling very fresh, so I personally like it much better this way  =)

It was a lot of fun making these,

especially since I really enjoy tinkering with DIY stuff,

and everyone tells me that this way is also a lot cheaper than buying store bought ones,

so that's an added bonus!  =D

Hope you enjoyed these recipes!

And let me know if these also work for you  =)

 Happy Monday!!

--Janny