So, I made some calculations and adapted the original recipe I used, to one that's even easier to assemble and only yields 1 gallon at a time.
Here is the original beastly recipe:
- 1 bar castile soap, grated
- 1 cup washing soda
- 1 cup borax
- 35-40 drops essential oil(s)
- 5 gallons of water
Melt the grated soap in about 1 cup of water. In a 5 gallon bucket combine melted soap, washing soda, and borax, slowly adding water while mixing. Let sit overnight and re-mix as it will have settled. Use ~1 cup per load of laundry.
Not that tricky really, though the grating and melting of bar soap was a bit cumbersome. But they make LIQUID castile soap and I thought, wouldn't that be about 10 times easier to use than grating and melting bar soap into a liquid? It is a little bit more price wise for the liquid than the bars, but to me it's worth saving the time and effort.
There's a handy little blog post comparing and contrasting the difference of Dr. Bronner's bar and liquid castile soaps and the break down of soap content (1 bar roughly equals a heaping 1.5 cups of liquid soap).
So now, here it is the Easiest Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent!
- 1/3 cup liquid castile soap
- 3 tbsp washing soda
- 3 tbsp borax
- 8-9 drops essential oil(s) - I use 9 drops of Young Living's Thieves EO blend
- 1 gallon of water
Add powder ingredients to container (in my case, old apple juice bottles). Add ~1 cup warm water, shake gently until powder is completely dissolved. Add the castile soap, fill about 75% of the way with water. Add in essential oils, shake gently to incorporate, top off with water. Use ~1 cup per load of laundry (I typically eye ball it, and it's probably less than 1 cup use, more like 3/4 of a cup).
Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.
