Homemade Laundry Soap (Liquid Version)

I use to always buy Tide. Then I decided to be frugal. So that was the end of Tide...

and the beginning of an awesome low cost alternative.

Homemade Laundry Detergent (Liquid Version)

1 bar of Kirks Castile Soap
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda

Cut the soap into small pieces and place in the pot with 5 cups of water. Bring the water just below a boil and stir until the soap is completely melted. When the soap is just about melted, pour 3 gallons of hot water into the 5-gallon container and let it sit until the soap in the pot is melted. Once all of the soap shavings are melted, pour the mixture into the 5-gallon container and stir.

Once the soap and water are stirred, add the cup of washing soda and stir until dissolved. Once the washing soda is dissolved, pour in the cup of borax and stir again until dissolved. If you would like a scent add some essential oil to your mixture. *If you have a paint mixer attachment for your drill that works great for mixing this*

Now you've got a huge container of hot soapy looking water. Cover the container, place it somewhere out of the way and let it sit overnight. Once it's cooled it will gel. It will not gel uniformly so it will be lumpy and watery.


You use half a cup per load of laundry. This homemade laundry detergent works well in high efficiency washing machines since it is low sudsing.

This recipe makes 442 oz of laundry detergent - you will need 4 oz per load. You should be able to wash 100 loads of laundry.

Cost Breakdown
$1.75 per batch (same as powdered version)

100 loads of laundry comes out to $.02 per load