Do you ever wonder how to make homemade laundry detergent? There are quite a few advantages of doing this instead of buying commercially available detergents. What are you using right now to clean your clothes? It’s probably one of the following popular brands:

• Sun
• Purex
• Persil
• Dreft

While there is nothing wrong with any particular brand, there are quite a few benefits when you make your own detergent.

Save Money

Let’s start with the main reason most of start making our own detergent. Homemade versions are quite a bit cheaper. Depending on what detergent you buy right now, and whether or not you stick with the actual brand or a store-brand version. You can easily save $0.20 to $0.50 each time you wash a load of clothes. While that may not seem like a big saving, consider how many loads of laundry you do per year. Most families will wash about 2 to 3 loads of laundry each day. Let’s say you save just $0.25 per load. That’s a saving of well over 180 dollars each year you make your own detergent.

You Know What Goes In

While those savings are certainly appreciated, the main reason I stay with the homemade kind, is because it gives me control over what goes into the detergent. Do yourself a favor and take a look at the list of ingredients on your detergent bottle. Most of it probably doesn’t make much sense. Commercial products are full of chemicals, additives and preservatives. They also tend to be full of fragrances and this combined with the other chemicals can cause allergic reactions for those of us with sensitive skin (as well as young children). You are in control of the ingredients that go into your laundry soap. With most recipes those consist of just a few natural ingredients like washing soda, soap and borax. It makes it a lot gentler on your child’s (and your own) skin.

Better For The Environment

For the same reason homemade laundry detergent is also more ecologically friendly. The same chemicals and additives we talked about above also harm the environment as they are flushed out through the sewer system. By making your own detergent, you are doing your part to keep the earth clean and healthy. This may not be a big concern for you, but it is nice to know that you can do your part just by making detergent.