What you wash your clothes with is very important. Clothing is in constant contact with the skin. Our skin absorbs what we put on it, especially when we sweat. We all want our clothes to smell fresh and feel soft. In order to obtain this, the manufacturers use chemicals, and lots of them. These chemicals help remove stains from your clothes but they also leave behind toxins that seep into your skin. So is your laundry really clean if it's been saturated with chemicals after it's been washed?
I struggled with making my own laundry detergent. I tried dozens of recipes and didn't love any of them. I finally found one, and it was the easiest to make out of the dozen. It doesn't foam, which took me a while to get used to, but it does clean my clothes and contains only two ingredients.
Homemade Laundry Powder
3 bars of coconut oil soap - Kirk's Castile Soap
6 cups of Washing Soda - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
Grind the bar soap into powder (I cut the bars up and threw them in my Ninja because I don't have a food processor)
Combine the soap powder and washing soda into a large container
Add 2-3 Tbsp to each load
Helpful tips
- when washing in cold water, add the powder first to hot water so it dissolves then switch the water back to cold
- add a few drops of essential oil directly into the water as it fills the machine. Lemon is a great degreaser and lavender's deodorizing capabilities can work wonders on your laundry
- fill your fabric softener compartment or Downey ball with white vinegar. It softens and fluffs naturally
