DIY: Homemade Stain Fighting Laundry Detergent

Today I'm showing you how I'm saving approximately $38.00 a year in homemade laundry detergent.  If something is easy enough for me to do by myself, saves me a little bit of money and saves on the environment (reusing a storage container rather than purchasing containers every time) then I'm all for it. 

About six months ago I made a liquid laundry detergent that I found through Pinterest.  It worked great but there was a few things that I wasn't happy about.  First when you make the concentrate you need milk containers to mix it with water, I either had to save all of our milk containers or ask neighbors to save theirs for me.  Second, adding the water to each wasn't a fun or easy task.  Third, you need storage room for about 10-12 milk containers when you're finished but the worst part was that with time the containers started leaking the liquid all over my laundry room!  It was then that I decided to give the powder detergent a try.  

I've scoured the internet and Pinterest for recipes.  We have allergies and asthma in our family and we've never been big fans of real strong scented detergents.  I also wanted to be sure that the detergent would be safe for our HE machine.  I read in our machine manual that you could add powder just the same as liquid detergent.  

Another important aspect was stain fighting power!  The liquid detergent I made before worked well but there were stains that required a shot of Oxyclean stain remover.  That's why I've added the Oxiclean powder to the recipe.  So here's how you make it:

Start by grating two bars of Fels-Naptha soap.  

{You can find all of these items in your local grocery store's cleaning/laundry aisles}

I used a fine grater rather than a normal sized shredder.  After shredding the soap you simply mix all of the ingredients together.  I used a 5 gallon bucket to mix, adding small amounts of each at a time, layering the ingredients to make mixing it easier.  

I bought a Rubbermaid storage container from Target to store the powder.  You'll need an airtight container for best results.  

I used to buy a large container of Tide at Sam's Club.  The Tide was costing us 21¢ a load and this homemade version is only 12¢ a load.  Less waste and saving money...yes please!

Tell me, do you make any homemade cleaners?  How else does your family save money?

See where I link up HERE.