Natural Liquid Dish Soap Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 ¾ cups boiling water
- 1 Tbsp borax
- 1 Tbsp grated bar soap (use castile bar soap, homemade soap, Ivory, or whichever natural bar you prefer)
- 15-20 drops essential oils, optional (find 100% pure essential oils here)
Directions:
- Heat water to boiling.
- Combine borax and grated bar soap in a medium bowl. Pour hot water over the mixture. Whisk until the grated soap is completely melted.
- Allow mixture to cool on the countertop for 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. Dish soap will gel upon standing.
- Transfer to a squirt bottle, and add essential oils (if using). Shake well to combine.
Now you’re ready to use your liquid dish soap just as you would use any commercial brand!
Vinegar Laundry Softener
- 1 gallon white vinegar
- 30-40 drops of essential oil (where to buy 100% pure essential oils) optional.
Lavender-scented softener is one of my favorites, or a combination of sweet orange and lemon when I need a pick-me-up on laundry day! A third suggestion is to use peppermint for an invigorating minty scent.
To use:
Just shake well before each use and it’s ready for the rinse cycle. For small or average loads add 1/2 cup to the rinse cycle, or a little more for large loads. (UPDATE: A helpful reader with an HE washer advises that about ¼ cup works perfectly for full loads.)
Dryer Sheets
Cut cotton cloth into small squares. I use 5-inch squares of cotton t-shirts that I’m retiring. Add 3-5 drops of essential oil to your cloth and throw it in the dryer with your next load. These cotton dryer sheets can be used for 2 or 3 loads, each time adding 3 more drops of your favorite essential oil. Wash the cloth after a few uses and experiment with a new fragrance the next time!
No essential oils? Try a ball of aluminum foil in your dryer. It can be used 4-5 times before it will need to be thrown away. Also, line drying reduces static cling as well.
High Efficiency (HE) Washers
HE front-load washers require “special soap” for one reason alone – low suds. Because they use less water, they require soap that is less sudsy. The good news is, homemade detergent is VERY low suds. The ”special” HE detergent is just another advertising mechanism to push consumers to buy “special soap” for unnecessarily high prices.
Safe for septic tanks and fields
Homemade detergent is the best laundry soap to use with septic tanks because it contains zero phosphates and zero fillers (like montmorillonite clay) that cause commercial powder detergents to clog lines. It is also completely non-toxic so it will not harm necessary septic bacteria like toxic detergents and antibacterial soaps. Use with confidence.
Is Borax Toxic
After thorough research, I concluded borax is only as toxic as baking soda or table salt; if you ingest it in high quantities, it may make you sick. If you use it as described in our recipes, it poses no toxic threat.
Just make sure you don’t confuse Borax with Boric Acid, the two are NOT the same. Use borax (I recommend 20 Mule Team brand), steer clear of boric acid.
Recipes from the book titled DIY Natural Household Cleaners by Matt and Betsy Jabs.
More Uses for vinegar:
If you are a busy household and you are thinking, "When in the world will I have time to make all these things?"; I sell pre-made washing detergent for $10 for a 3 gallon bucket or $12 for a 5 gallon bucket. I re-use Tidy Cat buckets but if you want to provide your own container I can accommodate your needs.
I am also happy to sell other cleaners listed here as well.
Enjoy your savings!
Tara
