'DIY' Laundry Detergent - A Dry Cleaners Comprehensive Review

DIY laundry detergent is the latest craze within the cleaning and laundry community. It seems like just about every cleaning website and influencer blog has their own magic recipe that promises amazing results for low low prices. 

In this video I'm going to make, use, test, and review two recipes from the well regarding cleaning website, The Spruce. The Spruce has a very large following online so I am hopeful the information within their recipes is thorough and backed by science. 

Powder Recipe:
1 Bar of laundry soap
1 cup baking soda
1 cup washing soda
½ cup borax

Pod Recipe:
1 & 1/2 cups of super washing soda
1/2 cup pure soap flakes
2 tablespoons epsom salt
3 tablespoons hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
15 to 20 drops essential oil for fragrance (optional)

To test these recipes, we washed stained cotton swatches with a load of laundry (our ballast) with each of these detergents across 3 different water temperatures (cold, warm and hot). We then measured the results before and after to quantify the stain removal, see results below.

Results are as followed:
Powder Stain Removal Performance - 55.83% @ $.40 / load
Pod Stain Removal Performance - 52.70% @ $.75 / load

These two recipes were okay, but here is our take on DIY recipes:

Jerry's 'simple ingredients' DIY recipe:
2 parts washing soda
1 part borax
1 part sodium percarbonate
1 part Mollys Suds powder detergent

Zach's 'performance focused' DIY recipe:
2 parts washing soda
1 part borax
1 part sodium percarbonate
1 part Tide powder with oxi booster

Zach's DIY Recipe Stain Removal Performance - 64.40% @ $.35 / load
Jerry's DIY Recipe Stain Removal Performance - 54.77% @ $.32 / load

For more tips and tricks feel free to follow me on TikTok and Instagram @jeeves_ny. Please feel free to ask me any of your laundry questions by leaving a comment below. And let me know what you’d like me to discuss next, I am excited to be working on more long format content.

[freedomcat]

Please do a review on Mexican detergent powder brands.

[therobin]

I wash with cold water, but I dissolve my powdered products in hot water before adding them to the machine. It’s quick and I don’t end up with grit at the end of the cycle.

[StellaMarisBeautyMUA]

When I used to make my own laundry detergent I used to have a dedicated food processor to make a lot of DIY laundry detergent. I have a large family with 14 children so when they were all little DIY detergent saved us a lot of money! It was so worth it. Thanks for sharing your recipes, good stuff!

[healthyvoicetips]

Hi Zach, I follow you on IG and now, I follow you here. Your knowledge of cleaning products is amazing! And your videos are very informative educational. It’s impressive that you are the fourth generation of cleaners. I look forward to watching more of your videos.

[blackhawkb]

Now that was a good informative video. I totally agree with the notion that people think they are doing environmental or cost cutting improvements when they do not think about the time, cost of ingredients and energy consumption. I usually buy the Arm and Hammer liquid but will look into lower costs powders, especially in a box so it is bio degradable. I do hate throwing those liquid plastic containers in the trash, and no, they do not get recycled.

[lahaza]

Three tablespoons of peroxide diluted by a tub full of water is useless, but sounds good.
Not mean't negatively, I LOVE your channel!

[lizomen]

Once a year I make bar soaps this includes making laundry soap 🧼. I like using it for my clothes that aren't really dirty but need to be washed. I really appreciate you breaking it down .

[alidoll]

I would LOVE to see where some powder brands end up. You mentioned Roma, and I NEED to know about FOCA. it's super cheap at Sam's club, but I'm not sure it's worth it. I have totally been using the least amount of liquid, though. Thanks much for all this info! And some of us really do nerd out with you!

[monagailcompton]

A large group do it because of skin sensitivity issues. Many of the detergents you recommend for improving is what I’m trying to get away from. But… all in all I did learn something. Thank you

[EmilyPloegman]

A lot of people who are concerned with ingredients are concerned with fragrances and how those ingredients effect us. Some have a family member who has severe reactions to fragrances. This is an important topic in laundry.
Also, how to get fragrances out of clothes once there either from used clothes or just exposing to fragrances in people's homes who regularly use fabric softener and other fragrances.

[sharonlatour]

If you dissolve your homemade laundry detergent in hot water before adding it to your washer, you can still wash in cool and warm water.

[annalisacandaso-robertson]

Very helpful! I'm trying to improve the laundry detergent I made years ago. I used to do a lot more warm/hot water wash when my babies were babies and in cloth diapers so the homemade laundry detergent worked fine dissolving in hot water. Now that I do almost all cold water wash, I meed an improved recipe that tackles stains and still works with cold water. I appreciate you nerding out with you expertise, breaking it down, showing it in action with the science experiment. Thank you!

[melodybales]

The number one thing that bothers me is seeing people use cleaners that are great in the most ineffectove way😂 theres a reason your peroxide is stored in a dark bottle yall!

[YOLOlynn]

You had me at spectrometer.❤ Awesome video, I love it. Thank you so much for reviewing & improving diy recipes, this is exactly the info I was looking for!

[sunnymeb]

Totally here for it! 👏👏👏 Thank you. And great job. I like cold water because I wear natural fibers, washable merino, linen, cotton. Love to see your ideas on that!

[JD-snsr]

I use fels naptha bar soap, washing soda, and borax. I first take the fels naptha bar cut it in chunks and then let a food processor grind it up to a very fine powder. Then I take a cup of washing soda and borax and do the same thing; letting the food processor grind it to a very fine powder. Mix all three ingredients together, one last fine grind and it comes out very fine powder that mixes well in hot or cold water. I love your videos especially the ones on stain removal.

[rachelrainbowphoenix]

10 years ago I was really into diy and I found a version of the first recipe that was fels naptha, borax, and washing soda. The varient was that water was added and everything was boiled and then emulsified into a wipped "sauce". It did a great job cleaning my spouse's truly gross ACUs but when we moved to an area with muuuch harder water it wasn't nearly as effective. I used the remaining jars I had made as a stain treatment and went back to tide pods 😊

[dinarusso]

I'm a laundry nerd too! I've seen a few diy laundry soap videos who only use cold water and I was thinking the same thing 😊

[misssummersalt]

Thanks for including Celsius for us Aussie boys 😘

[ronb]

One thing people ignore is most He machines cannot take laungry soap which is the main cleaning agent in DIY laundry. Borax is hard on the rubber seals on front loading machines. I will stay with purex Free and Clear. Its made for He machines and won't void the warranty. I will take your. Advice and not put too much detergent in a load. I have a top loader old school and it agitates real well. I just cleaned my machine today.

A thirty year old Maytag still running as good as the day i bought it. 73

P.S. i must qualify my remarks on He Machines. I have two on my mountain property. The front loader has an Afresh cycle and i would like to try washing my dirty jeans using that cycle and just use the extra rinse to rinse out my jeans. The other is a top loader with no agitator. I really don't like those machines. I prefer agitators over wash plates.73