Let's talk dirty for a minute... as in laundry. Homemade Laundry Detergent Actually

My monster man... is a dirty man. He does dirty stinky nasty work. I have 2 monster boys... they also like to get pretty dirty. Needless to say laundry at my house is a chore...and buying laundry detergent can put a dent in my household budget. For a while now homemade laundry has been blowing up the blog world and I really wanted to make it and save some money. I however refrained...because I wanted a guarantee it worked. I also wanted a promise that my super sensitive skin wouldn't have a meltdown that resulted in a trip to the dermatologist for shots... See I tried cutting corners with laundry detergent. I bought Sam's brand that was supposed to be comparable to Gain. Gain is what I always used so that is the results I wanted. I had a very bad allergic reaction and broke out everywhere... ahem...everywhere. That resulted in a huge dermatologist bill because I had to get shots... a few actually. Not to mention that I had to rewash every piece of laundry in my house because by the time we figured out it was the detergent it had been a while. So lots of money, time and hours of work lost. I swore off ever switching laundry detergent again...because it was worth the extra money knowing I wouldn't be a walking hive with itchy parts you cant really itch in public. Well you can..but people get all judgy. Almost a year passed and again I was feeling the pressing of the budget and couponing helps but not enough. So I looked into making my own detergent. Everywhere I looked I seen you had to buy bars of laundry soap and grate it...and then you mixed in a big tub and it didn't smell good. See that's the thing I need my laundry to smell good... I know its kinda vain and maybe silly but to me its comforting. I love at night after a shower burying my face in a towel and breathing in fresh laundry. Or how it smells when you pull a quilt out of the linen closet when you are making your bed... so yeah I need smell... Then there were recipes that you cooked and it made thick liquid detergent supposed to be similar to store bought... but it was hit or miss..every time I read a comment that said it was great the next one said it was awful. Also I read  more than one review that said it screwed up their plumbing and septic system...um yeah that's all I need cost the family even more trying to save money again. I didn't want to waste time and money on awful. So I kept searching. Till I came across a liquid recipe that involved no grating...and I it had good reviews. I made it and it didn't work as well for me as it did some of the other people... So I tweaked it a little changed some of the measurements...and added something to make it smell. So now I have been using it for about 3 months. I love it. It smells awesome. It gets my clothes clean..also it gets my stinky monster's clothes clean.. and the best part is...It only costs me about 1.20 a gallon (or less depending on the couponing deal I get for the dish detergent and smell booster)...and every gallon I can get between 26-30 loads out of... say what???  Yep its cheap its easy and it smells so good!!  Its all really thanks to the original post I found at One Good Thing by Jillee. You can click the link for the original...but below is mine.

1 gallon of laundry detergent

6 T. Borax
6 T. Washing Soda
6 T. Gain in Wash Scent booster
5 T. Dawn dish detergent ( I use the blue original only)
Almost a gallon of boiling water.

I take a gallon jug. I recycled some vinegar jugs. I go thru alot of vinegar. I use it for cleaning and laundry. Anyways take a funnel and measure the Borax, Washing Soda, and Gain into the jug. Now I take a glass measuring cup that holds 4 cups and microwave water till it almost boiling. I pour that into the jug and shake..with the lid on. I take the lid off in between shaking though.  I leave this on my counter because it takes a little bit of shaking to make and get dissolved. I keep microwaving water and filling and shaking till I get almost half way full...by this time pretty much dissolved. So then I measure in the Dawn and shake some more... now this causes suds... but its ok... I shake into everything looks good and dissolved. Then I top it off with warm water directly out of the faucet and shake a again. As your topping off with the warm water the suds actually come out. Let it cool and its ready to use. I generally shake it before using every time. I use between 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup per load...depending on the size of the load. On my husbands really gross clothes I use about 3/4-1 cup.

Here are a few things I thought you might have questions about:

It doesn't make suds in the washer... that does not mean it is not cleaning.
It is really thin and watery.
It starts out pink because the gain granules are pink..
It turns blue because the dawn.
It has been great on my sensitive skin.
It seems to me that the clothes actually smell better longer. Because when I walk into the closet or towel cabinets it smells fresh all the time.
For each gallon I get between 25-30 loads.
It costs me about .5 a load..gain costed me about .16 a load.

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