How to go green - make your own laundry detergent and dish soap from scratch

One way to adopt a green lifestyle, and to save money, is to make your own laundry products. You can make most of the products you need around your home from scratch and laundry detergent is no exception. By making your own laundry products, you know exactly what the ingredients are and you can avoid chemicals that may make you sick. Unlike food, cleaning products don’t have to mention their ingredients on the label.

Making your own laundry detergent is very easy. To make powdered laundry detergent you mix together 4 cups of soap flakes (soap flakes can be bought pre-packaged or you can grate a bar of soap, such as Ivory, which is one of the purest soaps available and it is inexpensive), 2 cups of washing soda and 2 cups of borax. Store it in a plastic container.

Making liquid laundry detergent is a little more complicated. It contains 1 cup of water, ¼ cup of soap flakes, 12 cups of hot tap water, 4 tablespoons of washing soda and 2 tablespoons of borax. You add water to a saucepan and heat it; next add soap flakes to the water and stir them until they melt. Next pour the hot tap water into a bucket, add the ingredients from the saucepan and stir. Next add the washing soda and stir, and then add the borax and stir. Pour into a plastic container for future use.

To make a natural fabric softener, add ¼ cup of baking soda to the wash cycle or add ¼ of white vinegar to the rinse cycle. In addition, you can add Epsom salts to the beginning of the wash cycle.

All of the ingredients to make your own laundry detergent are easily found in drug stores, discount stores and supermarkets. While most of the ingredients to make your own laundry detergent are natural, they are also not for human consumption. Caution must be exercised, the laundry detergent must not be taken internally and they should be kept away from children.

If you don’t feel inclined to make your own laundry detergent, there are many pre-made natural products available today. However, they tend to be a lot more expensive than the regular products.

Everyone wants clean and sparkling dishes, whether they are washed by hand or in a dishwasher. The recipes for dishwashing liquid below are simple to make and contain natural ingredients. All of the ingredients can be purchased at drug stores, supermarkets or discount stores.

As with making your own laundry detergent, making your own dishwashing liquid will save you money and lessen the odds you will react unfavourable to any of the ingredients.

Dishwashing liquid detergent, hand wash

• 2 cups of hot water
• ¼ cup of soap flakes (can be purchased or a bar of soap can be grated)
• ¼ cup glycerine
• ½ teaspoon of any essential oil, lemon and tea tree oil are good choices

Mix the soap flakes with the hot water and stir until the soap flakes dissolve. Allow the mixture to cool slightly. When the water is lukewarm, add the glycerine and the essential oil. The mixture will gel as it cools down. After it has cooled completely, use a fork to break up the gel and pour it into an old dishwashing liquid bottle, or any other squeeze bottle. It does not foam up as much as commercial dishwashing liquid but it does clean the dishes. Do not use this mixture in a dishwasher.

Dishwashing detergent, dishwasher

• ½ cup washing soda
• ½ cup Borax

Mix the ingredients together and store in a plastic container. Use 2 tablespoons of the detergent in the soap compartment of the dishwasher. Citric acid can be added if your silverware does not clean well enough. Keep out of the reach of children.