Homemade Laundry Detergent and Dishwasher Soap

Every time I do laundry, I cringe as I pour the detergent onto our clothes. Even though I only use clean and clear (of dyes and perfumes), you never know what chemicals you're exposing yourself every single day you wear clothes (which for us, is every single day! ;) ) I have heard awful things about the stuff in our laundry products.
Recently, a friend introduced me to an easy and cost effective way to cut all that stuff out. She gave me a recipe for laundry detergent. I was worried about the time it would take to make it but it literally took 5 mins and 30 seconds!! The 5 minute part was for stirring, while the 30 sec. part was for shaving the soap and mixing it all together!

Here is the SIMPLE recipe:

1 bar of shaved Ivory soap
1 cup of Washing Soda
1 cup of Borax

Store in an airtight container. Still waiting to hear how much to use per load...but it makes around 32 loads a batch.

Along with this recipe, she gave me a dishwasher soap recipe that used some of the same ingredients. She swears by this, and I can't wait to see how it works on my own dishes!

1 cup of Washing Soda
1 cup of Borax
1/2 cup of Kosher Salt
1/2 cup of Citric Acid

Store in an airtight container. 1 heaping tablespoon for a load of dishes. Vinegar for a rinse aid.


All together, these ingredients cost me around $12. That's at least 3 (94 loads) batches of laundry detergent, and at least two batches of dishwasher soap. Win, win in my opinion!

Like a friend said a while ago, "It's a journey, right?" Might as well try something new every now and then!