Have you wondered about making your own cloth diaper detergent? Or do you use one cloth diaper detergent and a different detergent for your other laundry? Want to reduce the the chemicals in your laundry but still have fresh smelling diapers and clothes?
Make Your Own Cloth Diaper Detergent. Less chemicals, less money, and clean diapers.
This homemade cloth diaper detergent can serve as a dual purpose laundry detergent as well. You only need two “ingredients” and one batch can last three months at our house. That’s a lot of washes!
The cost for one batch of this laundry detergent can range between $12-$15. I usually do one load of laundry per day, but some days I do two; with three months having around 90 days and washing about 120 loads of laundry this detergent comes out to be $0.10- $0.08 per wash.
Some people report having issues using OxiClean with their cloth diapers, but I personally have seen no problems in my diapers from using it and I have been using this homemade detergent with OxiClean in it for almost two years.
All you need for this cloth diaper detergent is:
1 box Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
and
1 tub OxiClean {I’ve used both the regular kind and the Baby OxiClean.}
Dump both of these powders into a large tub and mix thoroughly. Transfer to an air tight container. I usually use 2 Tablespoons for a medium load of diapers and 2-3 Tablespoons for a large load of laundry depending on how soiled it is.
Washing Cloth Diapers
I shared with you what you need to know about cloth diapering over on Becoming Family and gave you a peek into my cloth diaper stash here. Now I want to share with you what my cloth diaper washing routine looks like.
I normally wash diapers every two-three days. As the diapers are dirtied they are placed right into the washing machine or in the designated dirty diaper spot. If there is a poopy diaper it is rinsed out in the toilet first before going to the washer. I don’t have a sprayer I just use the dunk and swirl method.
If I am placing the diapers right into the washer I make sure to add my detergent first then place the diapers on top- I have an older washing machine though,so just follow the instructions for your machine.
I do not do any pre-rinse just a normal wash with hot water. Every once in a while I will do an extra rinse at the end but that isn’t very often.
To dry I either hang everything on the line or remove all my single covers- my Zookaboo ones and a Rumparooz- and then throw the rest in the dryer.
That’s it! Super easy!
When we lived in Uganda store bought laundry detergent was so expensive so we made our own. My recipe was similar to this except it had shaved fels naptha soap in it. I used it for our cloth diapers and all of our other laundry too and loved it! I buy my detergent now but I still use fels naptha by itself as a stain remover because it is the best thing I have ever found to remove stains!
I can never find the Fels Naptha around here, which is why I started making the detergent without it. 🙂 My MIL finds it every once in a while, so I should have her pick up a bar for me…the boys stain sooo many things!
It’s really soo good for stains! I’ve used it to get out so many stains that I couldn’t get out with shout and oxi-clean!! =)
I never thought about making my own detergent but this is something I would love to try since we do so much laundry at my house! Thanks for the tip