DIY Recipe for Liquid Laundry Detergent (2024)

If I am being honest, I will tell you I’ve been dragging my feet on making a homemade recipe for liquid laundry detergent. I just love my dry powder laundry soap recipe SO MUCH that I never wanted to try anything else. Seriously. It’s that amazing. My dry laundry soap recipe is so easy and costs under $20 for a years worth. But curiosity has once again gotten the best of me and I decided to give liquid laundry soap making a try.

My friend gave me her liquid Fels Naptha laundry soap recipe. She loves it and has been making it for a very long time now. It’s gentle, super thrifty and only requires 3 ingredients.

So without further ado… here is the recipe.

DIY Recipefor Liquid Laundry Detergent

Ingredients:

• 1 Fels Naptha Laundry Soap Bar
• 1 Cup Borax
• 1 Cup Washing Soda
• Water

Directions:
In a medium cooking pot start4 cups of water to a on high heat.

Measure out the 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda, mix to combine.

Grate your Fels Naptha laundry bar. I used a hand cheese grater, but you can use a food processor or even a knife to shave off the pieces.

If the pot is boiling, reduce the heat to medium and add in your grated Fels Naptha bar.

You will want to stir this continuously for around 15 minutes until the bar if fully melted and incorporated into the water. You DON’T want to let the pot over boil so if the mixture starts boiling heavy and rising to the top of the pan remove it right away. It will be the biggest mess of your life if you let that boil over. Not kidding. Just keep it at either almost boiling or barely boiling the entire time and keep stirring.

After the first 5 minutes you should only have a few big pieces left to dissolve. But for some reason they take forever to dissolve. Keep stirring until its all dissolved (about 15 minutes).

Then add in your Borax and Washing Soda. Mix for around 5 minutes until they are totally dissolved as well. I can tell when it’s fully dissolved because there are no more grains at the bottom when I stir.

Then add your mix to a large bowl. Add in 4 cups of warm water and stir to combine.

Allow this mix to sit for 6 hours.

After the 6 hours is up it will look a little jelly-ish.

Take a spoon or whisk and smooth the separated water and jelly until it’s as smooth as you can get it. It might still be really thick. Store this concentrated mix in a large sealed container or jar.

I have used my used liquid detergent bottle when it was empty. When your old bottle of liquid laundry soap runs out add in one cup of this gooey concentrated mix plus 7-8 cups of water. Shake it up well until it’s nice, smooth and incorporated together. You can also use your blender if you like. If at anytime it separates again just shake it up well again.

I use the cap that came with the old liquid laundry around 3/4 full so around 1/3 cup of liquid detergent per load of laundry. If you have a high efficiency machine you will probably want to do a little less than that.

I got a TON of loads out of this concentrated mix, I’m guessing around 70-100. I need to really count the next time I make this recipe. Well, IF I make this recipe again I guess. I tell ya… I just LOVE my dry laundry detergent recipe so much more. I might just be a little bit lazy though. I love the easy dump and stir method of the dry one.

Price Breakdown:

• 1 Bar Fels Naptha $0.97
• 1 cup borax $0.40
• 1 cup Washing soda $0.40

Total = $1.77 for around 70+ loads!

So what do you think? Do you make liquid laundry detergent or do you prefer the dry powder version? Is this recipe similar to any you have tried before? How do you like it?