It’s Valentine’s Day and love is in the air, or should I say on my clothes…..
About one year ago, I shared with you my DIY Laundry Detergent. While I think that detergent is still great, I have a much deeper love for my new, DIY Laundry Detergent, recipe!
The major changes: I switched out the Fels-Naptha for Zote soap along with a few other additions that were added to the mix.
As a little boy my husband spent a summer down in Mexico. He claimed that his whites where whiter and his clothes were cleaner than usual, because of the soap they used down there. He then proceeded to tell me the soap of choice was Zote. Now before you go grab your bars of Zote, I dare to tell you this soap is made from cow fat. If cow fat is not your cup of tea, then you might just want to stick with Fels-naptha and make sure to never wash your body with Ivory, Dove, Dial, Zest, Lever, Caress or Jergens again- because these too are made from cow fat!
What You Need:
2 Bars of Zote Soap (or 3 bars of Fels-naptha)
1 Box of Borax
1 Box of Washing Soda
2- 28oz Containers of Purex Crystals
3- 16oz Containers of Oxi-Clean (I bought the $1 Dollar General version called Oxi-All)
2 Cups of Baking Soda
Directions:
1. Grate your bars of soap. Or use a food processor to do the work for you!
2. Combine/mix all your ingredients together.
This is the tricky step because you will have a large batch to mix up! I suggest using a 5 gallon bucket or a heavy-duty trash bag.
Use 1-2 Tbs per load. Works prefect in my HE washing machine. I add it into the powder compartment, and have yet to encounter any trouble.
I love the smell the Purex Crystals add to the mixture. When doing a load of laundry my house is as fragrant as can be! My clothes have never smelled better… I am just completely in L-O-V-E and giddy! I even dare to say I enjoy doing laundry now…
With my family of seven, I’m guessing this mixture will last around 4 months+. I will keep you updated!
14 CommentsCost breakdown:
Zote-$1.88 each
Borax- $3.49
Washing Soda- $3.29
Purex Crystals- $4.99 each (use a coupon along with a sale to obtain a better price!)
Oxi-All- $1 each (Dollar General)
Baking Soda- $0.75Total Cost: $24.27
YMCA Wyoming April 22nd 7pm
Does Meijer carry the zote soap? If not where do you find it?
Select Meijer stores carry Zote Soap. I found it by the whitening/Oxi products.
I am so excited to see how this works for you. The other recipe was OK, but I still felt that Tide was a winner. I’d love to find a better DIY soap. Thank you, and keep us posted!
SO GLAD TO SEE THIS! My hubby HATES the felsnaptha, so I was going to try the Zote soap, but I didn’t know anything about how well it worked, so I used Ivory instead. Which has been working great, but now that I know the Zote soap works so well I am definately switching! I am not a fan of chemical fragrances though, how natural is the Purex Crystals? Is it purely for the smell or does it help the detergent work better as well? And can I make this into liquid or will that not work?
I was wondering the same thing-can we leave out the Purex? My husband has fragrance allergies. I’ve never even heard of Zote soap…would it work with Ivory soap?
I was wondering the same thing about the Purex. Can it be left out? It looks like it’s a fabric softener and I have cleaning rags that can’t be washed with any type of softener, so I’d rather leave it out if it doesn’t affect performance…plus I have little ones in the house, so I’d rather not use perfume type products.
Seems like I found Zote at Big Lots last year. Might be time to use it!
Volume-wise, about how much does this make? Trying to figure out if I have enough space to devote to this in my laundry room using the recipe as-is or if I need to cut it down. Also, have you had any problems with it not dissolving in cold water?
Makes a ton! What you see pictured is a 21 cup lock n lock container. I could easily fill up two of these! I use warm water and it dissolves fine. I never have tried cold though. I used to have problems with my old detergent not dissolving in warm, but that’s not the case anymore.
I use this one, and I usually do all my wash in cold. I haven’t had a problem w/ it not dissolving
Could you make it as a liquid version like other homemade laundry soaps?
Does it leave any type of residue on the clothes? I have had some homemade laundry detergents do that. Also do you dissolve the laundry detergent before you put the clothes in or do you just put in on the top of your clothes?
I made this yesterday and can’t wait to try it! The purex crystals contain natural fragrance so its not so strong smelling. And I found the Zote soap at Meijer for like .90 something cents! Its a HUGE bar of soap! @ Cheryl I use the Ivory soap normally and it works fine, but I think the Zote soap works better, its VERY very similiar to Ivory soap, but the Zote soap is actually made for clothes so I think it will clean better! And @ Tracy, I had the same question about making this into liquid, but now that I have made it I see that it would be WAY too much work to do (with so much detergent to work with) that and pretty pointless. You only need 1 or 2 Tbs of this per load so it will last a LONG time! The link says 1 YEAR SUPPLY for a family of 4! And it is super easy to make!
Purex crystals are BOGO at CVS this week and there’s $1 off in the 1/27 RP!