DIY Homemade Laundry Powder

I was initially interested in making my own laundry powder when my husband, Mr Moo, started to break out in allergies each night before bed. I had recently bought a different powder in the groceries because the usual sensitive powder we got wasn't on special. Big mistake.

Suddenly I was aware of different ingredients and how really, I had no idea what was in the powder, but it made my husbands skin swell up where his clothes rubbed close to his skin.

Also, my 18 month old daughter has had eczema since she was born and I regularly sneeze whenever doing the washing. 

I did my research, so this blog post wont be reinventing the wheel, merely sharing my experience and hoping to encourage my own friends and family to make their own powder once they realise how simple (and cheap!) it is!

HOMEMADE LAUNDRY POWDER INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Borax 

1 cup Washing Soda

1 bar of soap

I found all of my ingredients at my local bin in and made approximately 500gm of powder for about $3.50

Notes on Borax:
Borax is a natural chemical that is found in laundry, hand soaps and tooth paste. It does your stain removing.

Notes on the Washing Soda:

Washing soda is a natural salt, and works as a natural water softener / odor remover.

Most online tutorials will tell you you need "washing soda powder" (a very fine powder), I found nothing of the sort in New Zealand, instead Washing Soda works just as fine in crystal form.

Notes on the soap:

I used an ordinary "lemon washing soap" from Binn Inn. You could use any soap, including baby soap if you want to go extra sensitive. This will do your degreasing.

Most online tutorials will tell you you need to grate then blend your soap up, but I found other tutorials saying this ruined their blenders and made their blades blunt. Instead I used the small, fine side of my grater and when that got clogged up with soap I just switched to the large side.

Put all of your ingredients in a sealed contained and give it a good shake to mix together. Shake your contained each time you use it so the large soap grates and soda crystals mix together well.

For a full load use 2 tablespoons of mixed up ingredients. Thats only HALF of one of the small "concentrated powder" scoops. Your 500gm batch of powder is going to last double that of a comercial batch.

And the verdict? Mr Moo hasn't had any reactions to this powder since we've started using it. Infact, when I said I was making my own powder he gave me a look of "yeah right, like that'll be good", and he hasn't even noticed a difference! 

I haven't sneezed, I dont even notice the powder when doing the washing, and Millas eczema has almost completely healed under her arms and in her elbow joints! 

Do you use your own washing powder, or any other thrifty do-it yourselfers around your home? Leave a comment and let me know! Its thrifty-cool!

Love, Sophie x