How to Make Homemade Laundry Detergent: Powder and Liquid
To make homemade laundry detergent powder, finely grate one 4 to 5 oz bar of laundry soap and mix it with 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax (or baking soda for a borax-free batch). Use 1 tablespoon per load in an HE washer and 2 tablespoons in a standard top-loader, with warm water if you can.
That one recipe covers what most people mean by homemade washing powder, DIY laundry detergent or the old Amish laundry soap recipe. This guide covers the exact batch, a borax-free version, how to turn the powder into a liquid, how much to use per load, and where a homemade mix falls short. A soap-based mix is not a true detergent, and in hard water, cold water or an HE machine it can leave residue. We’ll cover how to prevent that, too.
What you need to make homemade laundry detergent
You’ll need three or four ingredients, a box grater and a jar. Everything is sold in the laundry aisle.
- A bar of laundry soap: Fels-Naptha, Zote or a plain, unscented castile bar. Pick a bar with no added moisturizers or lotion. Creamy beauty bars leave an oily film on fabric. A Zote bar is much larger, so use about a third of one.
- Washing soda (sodium carbonate): softens water so the soap can work, and helps cut grease. It is not the same as baking soda and is far more alkaline.
- Borax (sodium borate), optional: helps in hard water and with dingy whites. Leave it out if you’d rather not keep it in the house.
- Baking soda, optional: a mild deodorizer and the usual stand-in for borax.
- Tools: a fine box grater or food processor, a large bowl, a dry airtight jar with a 1 tablespoon scoop, and gloves.
How to make homemade laundry detergent powder (washing powder recipe)
This is the simplest dependable batch, and it’s fragrance-free unless your soap is scented. It makes about 3 1/2 to 4 cups, which works out to roughly 30 standard loads at 2 tablespoons, or about 60 HE loads at 1 tablespoon.
- Grate the soap as fine as you can. Use the smallest holes on the grater, or pulse grated soap in a food processor until it looks like coarse sand. Fine soap dissolves. Shreds turn into flecks on dark clothes.
- Let the gratings dry for a few hours if the bar was soft or fresh. Damp soap makes the whole jar clump.
- Measure the powders: 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax. For borax-free, swap in 1 cup baking soda.
- Mix in a large bowl with gloves on, stirring gently so the fine powder doesn’t puff into the air. Break up any lumps with the back of a spoon.
- Store it sealed and labeled in a dry jar with the date and ingredients written on it. Humidity hardens washing soda into a brick.
- Dose 1 to 2 tablespoons per load and add it to the empty drum before the clothes, not the dispenser drawer. Powder that sits in a drawer tends to cake.
For cold washes, stir the dose into a cup of hot tap water until it clouds over and pour that into the drum. Undissolved soap is the main cause of white streaks. Maytag’s guidance for its washers is to keep “cold” water at 60°F or warmer so detergent can dissolve.
Amish laundry soap recipe
The recipe passed around as Amish laundry soap is the same idea with a laundry bar: one bar of grated Fels-Naptha, 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax, mixed dry or melted into a liquid (below). It’s popular because Fels-Naptha is a firm laundry bar, also sold as a stain pretreater, and it grates fine without gumming up the grater. It’s still soap, though, so the same rules apply: grate it fine, dose low and give HE machines an extra rinse.
Borax-free homemade laundry detergent
Plenty of households skip borax. Mix 1 finely grated bar, 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup baking soda. It works well in soft to moderate water. If your water is hard (spotty glasses, crusty faucets), the borax-free version can leave clothes feeling stiff. Add 1/4 cup extra washing soda to the batch before you add borax back in.
How to make liquid laundry detergent from powder
Liquid is easier to dissolve in cold water and in HE machines. You can make it from the finished powder.
- Heat 4 cups of water until steaming but not boiling.
- Stir in 1 cup of the powder mix and keep stirring until the soap melts and the liquid looks cloudy but smooth. This takes about 5 minutes.
- Pour it into a clean, labeled jug using a funnel, and let it cool with the cap off.
- Shake before each use. It thickens into a gel as it cools. That’s normal. A few seconds of shaking loosens it.
- Dose 1/4 cup for HE and 1/2 cup for a standard top-loader.
Want a bigger batch of the classic liquid? Melt half a grated bar into 4 cups of hot water, stir in 1/2 cup washing soda and 1/2 cup borax until dissolved, then pour the mix into a clean bucket with about 1 1/2 gallons of hot water. Stir, cover and let it set overnight. Use the same 1/4 to 1/2 cup dose.
How much homemade laundry detergent to use per load
- HE front-loader or HE top-loader: 1 tablespoon of powder or 1/4 cup of liquid
- Standard top-loader: 2 tablespoons of powder or 1/2 cup of liquid
- Heavily soiled or large loads: add 1 tablespoon more, never double it
More is not cleaner. Extra soap builds up as gray film on towels and causes that sour smell in the washer gasket. If towels stop absorbing, or clothes feel waxy, cut the dose in half and run one hot, empty wash to clear the drum. Our step-by-step washing machine cleaning guide walks through it.
Is homemade laundry detergent safe for HE washers?
It can work, but check your manual first. Some washer makers don’t support it. GE Appliances says homemade laundry detergent has not been tested and that it doesn’t recommend it in high-efficiency washers, and warns that too much detergent leads to oversudsing and residue. HE machines use very little water, so soap has less room to rinse away.
If you use it in an HE washer:
- Use the low dose (1 tablespoon powder or 1/4 cup liquid) and pre-dissolve powder in hot water.
- Wash warm when the care label allows.
- Turn on the extra rinse option.
- Leave the door open after each wash and run the machine’s clean cycle monthly.
- Go back to a commercial HE detergent if you see white clumps, a gummy gasket or a musty smell.
Washing soda and borax safety
- Both are irritants. Washing soda can irritate eyes and skin, and borax is harmful if swallowed. Wear gloves when mixing, don’t breathe the dust, and rinse skin with water if powder gets on it.
- Keep the jar away from kids and pets. Homemade powder looks like sugar or flour. Store it on a high shelf in a container that is clearly labeled with the ingredients.
- Don’t mix it with other cleaners. Never combine laundry products with ammonia or bleach-based cleaners in the same container.
- Don’t start from lye. These recipes use a finished bar of soap. Making soap from raw lye (sodium hydroxide) is a separate, caustic process, not a laundry-day project.
- Essential oils add scent only. A few drops won’t disinfect laundry, and too much can spot fabric.
Soap vs detergent: what a homemade mix can’t do
Most homemade laundry detergent is technically laundry soap. The American Cleaning Institute’s glossary of cleaning terms explains the catch: soap reacts with hard water minerals to form soap curd that deposits on fabric and inside washing machines. Detergents were developed because they are much less affected by hard water.
That’s why we use a commercial detergent for:
- Towels that need to stay absorbent
- Workout clothes and synthetics that hold body oils
- Protein and grass stains, which need the enzymes in store detergents (our guide to getting rid of armpit stains covers the buildup that soap residue makes worse)
- Bulky bedding, where residue gets trapped in the fill (see how to wash a comforter)
- Sick-room laundry that needs a hot wash or a product labeled to disinfect
Homemade powder is a good fit for everyday cottons, jeans, sheets and lightly soiled loads in soft to moderate water.
Laundry is one part of keeping a house running. If the rest of it keeps piling up, our recurring house cleaning visits take care of kitchens, bathrooms and floors, and we change the bed linens you leave out. Book a cleaning on whatever schedule works for you.
Homemade laundry detergent FAQ
Can you make real laundry detergent at home?
Not really. True detergents use synthetic surfactants made industrially. What you can make at home is a soap-based laundry powder or liquid. It cleans everyday loads well, but it doesn’t handle hard water or enzyme stains like a commercial detergent does.
Do you need borax to make laundry detergent?
No. Borax helps in hard water, but a mix of grated soap, washing soda and baking soda works for most everyday loads. If clothes come out stiff or dull without borax, your water is probably hard.
What is the best soap for homemade laundry detergent?
Use a firm laundry bar like Fels-Naptha or Zote, or an unscented castile bar. Avoid moisturizing beauty bars, which leave an oily film. Firm bars also grate finer, and fine soap dissolves better.
How do you make soap flakes for laundry?
Grate a dry bar on the finest side of a box grater, or pulse the gratings in a food processor. Let them air-dry on a tray for a few hours before storing so they don’t clump.