How To Make Your Own Laundry Soap Powder

Making your own home made laundry soap powder is easy and will be much cheaper than buying commercial washing powders. But the best part is knowing that your clothes, sheets and towels will no longer harbour lingering traces of chemicals that are commonly found in commercial detergents, and that these chemicals will no longer be entering your body through your largest organ – your skin. In addition, you can customise the odour of your powder by adding whatever pure essential oil that you like.

One of the main ingredients that you may not be familiar with is Borax, which comes from the natural mineral Boron and can be used as a disinfectant, stain remover, deodoriser and water softener.

It is considered to be environmentally safe.  However, both Borax/Boron, washing soda, bi-carbonate and salt have been found to be an irritant to some people with sensitive skin.  Therefore, if you are going to use this soap powder for hand washing and you have sensitive skin, please use rubber gloves, which you should also use during the preparation of this home made laundry soap powder.

Ingredients

• 125g washing soda (available from Coles/Woolworth own brand)
• 200g finely grated pure soap (comes in bars from same sources)
• 120g normal table salt
• 120g borax/boron (same sources as above)
• 125g of bicarbonate of soda
• ¼ teaspoon of lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus or essential oil of your choice.
• You can make a larger batch of powder by increasing ingredients proportionally.

Instructions

1. Grate the pure soap bars with kitchen grater.
2. Put washing crystals into bowl – make sure there are no big clumps (otherwise put it in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin).
3. Before mixing all the ingredients in the large bowl, put on rubber gloves in order to avoid irritating skin.
4. Mix the crushed washing soda with the rest of the dry ingredients.
5. Add the essential oil and mix into powder to disperse it.
6. Put the powder into an airtight container or large jar with a lid.
7. When using it:
   • Use 1 tablespoon for a small load;
   • Use 1.5 tablespoons for a medium load;
   • Use 2 tablespoons for a large load;
   • Put the required amount of soap powder into a glass or other container and pour 100 -150 ml of hot water over the powder and stir to dissolve a bit.
8. Pour it into the relevant dispenser drawer of your machine – i.e. main wash or prewash – turn on the washing machine and let it do its work!!

Happy and healthy washing days!

CoolWellbeing Foundation