How to Make Your Own Natural Laundry Soap 

For us, as a family of seven, laundry is one of those things in the “daily” category. By making our own powdered natural laundry soap, we can save money and have one less chemical cleaner.

Simplifying

Adapting to a simpler lifestyle brings so many new things to do and skills to learn. It’s best to start with either something small or something you often do or need. Making your own cleaning products is a great place to start.

The difference between detergent and soap

There is a difference between soap and detergent. Detergent is usually made with synthetic ingredients and often contains enzymes to dissolve stains, etc.

Soap is made of some kind of fat or oil. That can either be plant-based or animal fat-based. By adding sodium hydroxide to the water, the fat saponifies. Turning it into soap.

While sodium hydroxide might sound quite chemical, too, there is no trace of it left in the actual soap.

What’s better?

Both detergent and soap has its pros and cons.

Detergents can have better cleaning properties because they can contain enzymes and or a form of bleach. Detergents often foam more than soap as well.

Soap, on the other hand, is (often) made with (more) natural ingredients. Has good cleaning properties and can be easily made at home.

So, if you’re in for a simpler lifestyle and you’re looking for an easy way to start. Natural laundry soap is a great one to start with.

What you need to make laundry soap

To make natural laundry soap, you only need four ingredients and a handful of supplies. It’s super easy. You’ll most likely know the ingredients by heart after one time :).

Ingredients

• baking soda – 1 cup
• washing soda – 1 cup
• sea salt – 1 cup
• 1 bar of Sunlight soap/ Aleppo soap/ Marseille Soap

Supplies

• grater
• bowl for mixing
• (glass) jar for storage
• measuring cup

Tips for making powdered laundry soap

All of the ingredients have a long shelf life and are multi-purpose. If your budget allows for it, it pays to buy these in bulk.

Baking soda can be used for cleaning as well. Julia Watkins has shared great tips on her blog and in her book Simply Living Well on using baking soda.

Sea salt can be used for cleaning as well, and of course an essential for cooking and making sauerkraut.

Additionally, washing soda has great properties too and can be used for everyday cleaning and scrubbing pots and pans. Hence, it is also great for cleaning glass jars before using them in waterbath canning.

Grating a bar of soap

You may have to use some elbow grease to grate your whole bar of soap. But it’s definitely possible, and it will give your arms a free workout.

It’s best to use a fine grater. By using a fine grater, your natural laundry soap will dissolve better in the washing machine. I like to use the same type as you can use to grate Parmesan cheese and nutmeg.

Children often love to help with household things, so don’t forget to ask them.

Important information

If you use powdered laundry soap, it’s an absolute need to regularly clean your washing machine. Once a month, run an empty machine on the hottest cycle. You can add 2 tablespoons of citric acid for some extra anti-calc power.

Powdered laundry soap recipe

Gather your supplies and ingredients and take (another) little step towards a simple life. If you make sure you’ll never run out of these four simple ingredients, you’ll never run out of your own natural laundry soap.