DIY Better than your Leading Brand Laundry Detergent

Back in November my husband and I bought our first house.  We crunched the numbers and decided it was time to stop pouring our money into someone else's rental property.  While we have the money to own a home, there are a lot of unexpected expenses that come up when owning a home ie needing a new toilet when you accidentally break the tank while trying to fix it.  Yeah that just happened!  My dad was trying to adjust the handle for me to stop the toilet from running after being flushed.  It seems as though we cranked it one too many times!  Needless to say, I have a brand new shiny throne!  It flushes great by the way... Anyway, we took another look at the budget to see how we could save some money.  I found I could make my own laundry detergent for around .07/ load!  I know this may seem extreme to some, but to me it is so worth it!  My clothes not only smell amazing, the colors seem brighter, the whites seem whiter, and the smell amazing for weeks!  Oh,  did I mention it is great for HE washing machines too! Aside from the money savings, the best part about this laundry recipe is that there is no grating soap involved, nor do you need to store a 5 gallon bucket of laundry detergent somewhere. My recipe was originally inspired by The Everyday Cheapskate. Check out her tutorial for a variation!

You will need the following ingredients:

Empty 1 gallon jug

$3.92 Borax 3/4 cup

$9.47 Oxi Clean Versatile Stain Remover 1-2 scoops

$3.24 Arm & Hammer Washing Soda 3/4 cup

$3.28 Dawn Original Blue Dish Washing Soap 3/4 cup

$8- $10 Lemon or Lavender Essential Oil 10-20 drops

(All of these ingredients can be found at your local Wal-Mart in the Laundry aisle)

If you lost count, that is a total of $27.91! These ingredients will make approximatley 4 gallons of laundry detergent. That makes each gallon cost about $6.97.  I typically do about 1-2 loads of laundry a day and 1 gallon last me  around 3 months or 90 days making each load cost around .07!!!!!

So here is how you do it!!!
1) Heat up some water, so it is really hot. I usually heat m water in my tea kettle.
2) Measure out all of your powder ingredients- Oxi Clean, Borax, &Washing soda- and put them in your          gallon jug
3) Put some hot water in the gallon jug, enough to cover your powder ingredients and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE! You want the powdered ingredients to "disolve" and mix well in the water.

Excuse my mess around it....

4) Add water almost to the top of your jug leaving room for your dawn dish soap.
5) Add the desired amount of essential oil. Although lavender has some amazing uses, I use it to make my clothes smell amazing.
6) Stir or shake before each use- Add 1/4 cup to each load of laundry

I keep my detergent in a glass beverage dispenser and I use a paint stick to stir before each use!