Simple Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent
Making your own liquid laundry detergent couldn’t be easier. With this recipe, you can choose between unscented or scented, making it a great option for everyone.
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Combining three basic cleaning agents with water results in a simple, yet effective liquid laundry detergent anyone can make. You can even add essential oils if you want to give it a little scent boost!
Follow along and I’ll show you what you need, how to make your own liquid laundry detergent, and what the benefits of doing so are. Plus, be sure to check out the cost-benefit analysis to see a comparison between making your own homemade liquid laundry detergent vs. buying a natural liquid laundry detergent.
What’s the Deal with Laundry Detergent?
You may be wondering why anyone would go through the trouble of making things like liquid laundry detergent, when they can just buy it at the store. Trust me, I get it. With how busy life can be, most people aren’t making every little thing from scratch.
However, you may be surprised to learn just exactly what you are purchasing at the store.
Chemicals to Avoid and Why
Well if that doesn’t sound promising, I don’t know what does! 😅
In all seriousness, a common theme with many of these chemicals is eye, skin, and lung irritation. Considering our skin is our body’s largest organ, I think it is extremely important to take seriously what our skin comes in contact with.
Yes, your laundry does go through a rinse cycle to try to remove as much detergent as possible, but many of these chemicals still linger on your clothes, towels, and bedding after the process is complete.
Additionally, there’s a reason you can smell while the laundry is being done. The detergent becomes airborne, directly effecting the air quality that the members of your household are breathing in. Not to mention, with conventional laundry detergent you tend to still be able to smell the scent of the detergent long after your clothes have been dried and put away.
Imagine getting out of the shower and breathing in the scent of your towels. Then going about your day and smelling your laundry detergent emit from your clothes. Finally, at the end of the day getting into bed just to both smell and absorb into your skin the residual chemicals on your sheets. Talk about overwhelming!
You may be thinking that I sound a bit dramatic right now and that you hardly ever notice the leftover scent of your laundry detergent. You may also be surprised to know that artificial fragrances can actually deaden your sense of smell. What you don’t notice, all of us “crunchy” people are trying to not breathe in! 🫢
For more information and a comprehensive list of ingredients to avoid in cosmetics, cleaning, and personal care products, check out this guide from Organically Becca:
What are Safe Alternatives to Conventional Liquid Laundry Detergent?
Don’t worry, I am not leaving you hanging after pointing out what’s wrong with conventional liquid laundry detergent.
Just because conventional liquid laundry detergent has ingredients that should be avoided for both human and aquatic health, that doesn’t mean you have to choose between toxic ingredients or smelly clothes.
These days, there are so many options between making your own homemade version of practically every cleaning need, to many natural brands that offer great cleaning power without the ingredients that should be avoided.
DIY/Homemade
Mountain Rose Herbs is a great resource for purchasing many things, including soap nuts! In the future I plan on writing a post about how to use soap nuts for your laundry. Stay tuned 😎.
Top Natural Laundry Detergent Brands
This is just a list of options to look into. Not every product from each brand is free of unnecessary chemicals, so be sure to read the ingredients and choose wisely!
Benefits of Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent
Even with the natural and low-tox options out there for purchasing laundry detergent, there are still many benefits to making it yourself at home!
Extremely Easy
Whether you are making this liquid laundry detergent or a DIY powder laundry detergent, it truly is such an easy process. For the liquid version, this DIY recipe is much easier than most. Instead of grating and melting bar soap, it uses castile soap already in a liquid state. You can check one step off the list!
Everyday Ingredients
With ingredients like borax, washing soda, and liquid castile soap, you should have no trouble purchasing them in store or online. These ingredients are also very versatile in many household cleaning needs. Therefore, you won’t be purchasing them for just one project, but many.
Customizable
This homemade liquid laundry detergent is very customizable as far as the scent goes. You can make it scent-free by using Dr. Bronner’s Unscented Castile Soap, or you can choose from the many different Dr. Bronner’s varieties available, which are scented with essential oils. Also, you can use Dr. Bronner’s Unscented Castile Soap with your own essential oils that you may already have at home. You can try one essential oil or mix 2 or 3 together to create your own lovely, natural scent.
favorite scent combo
I like to mix 1/2 C lavender liquid castile soap with 10-15 drops of tea tree essential oil. Lavender and tea tree both have good cleaning abilities, and the combination creates a wonderful fresh scent.
Cost Effective
As with my other DIY recipes, you’ll find that making your own homemade liquid laundry detergent is very affordable. Please see the cost-benefit analysis for more details.
This recipe is actually even more cost effective than my powder laundry detergent recipe.
To see the difference and decide which route is better for you, check out the cost-benefit analysis for DIY Powder Laundry Detergent:
How to Make Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent
Protect your skin, home environment, and our ecosystem from unnecessary chemical exposure! Try out this super simple liquid laundry detergent recipe.
Ingredients
- ¼ C borax
- ¼ C washing soda
- ½ C liquid castile soap
- 7 ½ C hot water (divided)
- 10-15 drops essential oil (optional)
For more information on these ingredients, please see here.
Equipment
Instructions
Tap/click the images for a description of each step ⬇️
- Measure and pour borax and washing soda into a half gallon mason jar.
- Add about half the water. You’ll want to use hot water to help dissolve the borax and washing soda. Shake vigorously to make sure everything is dissolved and there are no clumps.
- Add remaining water plus the liquid castile soap. The liquid castile soap is added last so that the jar doesn’t fill with too many bubbles as you are pouring the water in.
- Add essential oils if desired.
- Use ¼ C (2oz) per load.
Tips
- An easy pour wide mouth mason jar lid works great to reduce spilling when pouring the liquid laundry detergent into your measuring cup for each load.
- I would not use a dispenser with a spigot or a pump, because as you can see in the instructions photos, the liquid laundry detergent will thicken after about 24 hours.
- You can easily multiply this recipe to suit the storage container size of your choice. There is no reason this liquid laundry detergent should expire, within reason, so it is a great recipe to make in bulk.
- This recipe yields 8 C of liquid laundry detergent. If you use a ¼ C (2oz) per load, this should last you 32 loads.
Additional Items to Pair with Liquid Laundry Detergent
- Wool dryer balls
- Vinegar (rinse cycle)
- Natural fabric softener
- DIY laundry scent boosters
- DIY dryer sheets
- Natural stain remover
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Let’s check out a price comparison between this homemade liquid laundry detergent recipe and a closely compatible manufactured liquid laundry detergent.
As of October 2025 in Tennessee:
Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent
¼ C borax
- $5.97 for 65oz
- 65oz = 8.125 C
- $0.73 per cup
- ¼ C = $0.18
¼ C washing soda
- $4.98 for 55oz
- 55oz = 6.875 C
- $0.72 per cup
- ¼ C = $0.18
½ C Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile Soap
- $32.49 for 64oz
- 64oz = 8 C
- $4.06 per cup
- ½ C = $2.03
Total: $2.39
- Yield: 32 loads
- $0.07 per load
Branch Basics: The Concentrate* (find here)
Price: $55.00
- Yield: 192 loads
- $0.29 per load
*Ingredients: purified water, decyl glucoside, organic chamomile flower extract, coco-glucoside, sodium citrate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium phytate
Branch Basics is truly one of the best natural cleaning brands out there! However, it is still cheaper to make your own liquid laundry detergent 😉.
To compare the affordability of this recipe vs. a powder laundry detergent recipe, please see below 👇
FAQs
Related Posts
I hope you enjoy saving your money and your health with this simple homemade liquid laundry detergent recipe 🙂.
Liquid Laundry Detergent
Equipment
- 1 half gallon mason jar
- 1 wide mouth mason jar lid
- 1 measuring cup
Ingredients
- ¼ C borax
- ¼ C washing soda
- ½ C liquid castile soap
- 7 ½ C hot water (divided)
- 10-15 drops essential oil (optional)
Instructions
- Measure and pour borax and washing soda into a half gallon mason jar.
- Add about half the hot water. Shake vigorously to make sure everything is dissolved and there are no clumps.
- Add remaining hot water plus the liquid castile soap.
- Add essential oils if desired.
- Use ¼ C (2oz) per load.
Notes
- An easy pour wide mouth mason jar lid works great to reduce spilling when pouring the liquid laundry detergent into your measuring cup for each load.
-
I would not use a dispenser with a spigot, because as you can see in the instructions photos, the liquid laundry detergent will thicken after about 24 hours.
- You can easily multiply this recipe to suit the storage container size of your choice. There is no reason this liquid laundry detergent should expire, within reason, so it is a great recipe to make in bulk.
- This recipe yields 8 C of liquid laundry detergent. If you use a ¼ C (2oz) per load, this should last you 32 loads.
- My favorite scent is made by using 1/2 C lavender liquid castile soap with 10-15 drops of tea tree essential oil.
This is a personal blog. All posts, recipes, recommendations, and how-tos are for informational use and personal viewing pleasure only. Blog posts are not written by AI.
Is this detergent ok in HE washing machines?
I use a top loading HE washing machine and I haven’t had any issues at all!
Can I add baking soda to this? I have messy kiddos and it’s one thing I add to my powder detergent that helps with stains.
Ya, I’d say you can! Baking soda pairs well with the other ingredients. You may have to add a little bit more water to balance adding another powder.