DIY Detergents

I know so many people who make their own laundry or dishwasher soap and have great things to say about it. Do you make your own? Even though I love the thought of it, I've just never gotten my fanny in gear to try it.

Well, last week I watched a documentary called Chemerical. It's kind of a low budget/cheesy documentary, but it caused me to finally make the effort to try to make our own natural dishwasher detergent and laundry detergent, to replace the detergents that have sulfates in them. I've used Seventh Generations dishwasher detergent for the last year or so, and even though I pretty much love every single Seventh Generation product, their dishwasher detergent has always left my glasses with a super fine layer of white film. :( So, over the weekend Selah and I made some dishwasher detergent, using this gal's recipe that we found on Pinterest:

1 1/2 Cups Lemi-Shine (They come in 12 oz containers, so this is a full one)

1 1/2 Cups Washing Soda

1/2 Cup Baking Soda

1/2 Cup Sea Salt (any will do I’m sure)

I'm an instant fan of this! My glasses are so shiny and it took me less than 2 minutes to make it. I give it a big thumbs up!

Today Selah and I decided to try making our own laundry detergent. We went ahead and made a liquid soap, using this gal's recipe that I also found on Pinterest:

1 bar Fels-Naptha (which you should be able to find at most grocery stores)

1 cup borax

1 cup washing soda (this is NOT the same as baking soda)

We grated our soap, stirred it in with the washing soda, borax and some water and warmed it as we stirred to get the soap to dissolve (we used an old pot that we don't cook with). Then we poured the mix into a half full bucket of cold water, mixed it, and then poured it into our empty, rinsed out detergent bottles. Selah was a great helper! I'm looking forward to using it this week.