The following is an excerpt from Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender with Alexandra Zissu (Clarkson Potter, 2010). From sourcing local and organic food to safely cleaning your kitchen sink, Planet Home is a road map for anyone looking to make greener, healthier choices at home. As co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation ā the most trusted brand in environmentally friendly household products ā author Jeffrey Hollender is one of the foremost authorities on natural, conscious living, andĀ Planet Home is an unparalleled resource for learning how to tread lightly on the Earth without sacrificing the quality, richness and unique comforts of your home. This excerpt is from Chapter 9, āThe Laundry Room.āĀ
Laundry (and dish) detergents tend to be less toxic than other conventional household cleaners ā but that doesnāt mean the chemicals used in most laundry rooms are safe for humans or the environment. In fact, they pose both immediate and chronic hazards.
You can easily and significantly reduce the potential danger in your laundry room by choosing to clean and whiten with natural products and better chemicals. Use common sense and avoid any bottle labeled ādanger,ā ācorrosiveā or āskin irritant.ā Store any laundry cleaners out of reach of children and pets. And, whatever you use, donāt use too much of it ā itās a waste of detergent and money, and extra residue will actually attract dirt to your clothing.
How to Choose a Natural Laundry Product
Because there is no standard definition of ānaturalā or ānontoxic,ā it can be difficult to know what to look for. Following these rules of thumb should eliminate most of the unnatural detergents in any given store.
- Seek out products that arenāt covered in danger warnings.
- Look for bottles that list all of the ingredients in the product, and read the ingredients. These should be complete lists.
- You should see a disclosure about the use of vegetable-based surfactants.
- Always check to see which kind of fragrance is in a natural product. It should be 100 percent essential oil.
- For help, check out GoodGuide.com or Seventh Generationās Label Reading Guide.
Homemade Laundry Solutions
Borax. You can find Borax (sodium borate, a naturally occurring mineral composed of sodium, boron, oxygen and water) in the detergent aisle of most grocery stores. Add 1/2 a cup of Borax to your regular detergent (liquid or powder) to give it an extra boost. Borax will help to improve the cleaning power, whiten, and remove stains and odors. You can also soak clothes in water with Borax (1 tablespoon per gallon of water) before washing. When using on delicates, add 1/4 cup to your regular detergent instead. Exposure to Borax can be harmful in high amounts, so avoid inhalation and ingestion.
White Vinegar. Add 1/4 cup of white vinegar during the last rinse cycle. White vinegar removes yellowing, acts as a fabric softener and inhibits mold and mildew.
At MOTHER EARTH NEWS, we are dedicated to conserving our planet's natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources. You'll find tips for slashing heating bills, growing fresh, natural produce at home, and more. That's why we want you to save money and trees by subscribing through our earth-friendly automatic renewal savings plan. By paying with a credit card, you save an additional $5 and get 6 issues of MOTHER EARTH NEWS for only $12.95 (USA only). 
Does anyone know how to make it up for a HE washer. They only need a tiny bit of soap to clean.
I know many people making their own laundry detergent and are really very good. However I never tried doing it alone, but now I am inspired to try one of the receipt here :) Best Regards http://cleanerbayswater.co.uk/
I make my own laundry detergent by mixing together:
1 Cup of Barax
1 cup of washing soda
1 cup of baking soda
1 full bar of Fels Naptha soap(grated to a fine powder)
After mixing all ingrediants together(dry, no water) I store it in a air tight glass jar.
To use, I add 2 - 3 tablespoons to the washer.
1 batch of this will last me about a month to a month & a half.
with what is left over after mixing the 1 batch, I will not have to buy any more ingrediants for about 3 - 4 months.
there is a complete write up with illustrations here: http://www.budget101.com/myo-household-items/whipped-cream-super-laundry-soap-3993.html
for the person who wanted to know how to make her own, I haven't tried it yet, but plan to.
Mary try Target...they sell Borax..or go to an Ace Hardware store...or larger food chain stores.
I have been using the washing soda, borax, fels naptha combo for about 3 years. It works great in my front loader. I also use vinegar with just a little baking soda and water with a few drops of essential oil for my softner. I make my diswasher soap also. They all work great. My clothes have a fresh clean smell.
You can wash a load of laundry and get it very clean by just grating a little castille soap (Ivory soap works great) into the wash and adding some baking soda or borax and some vinegar,any one of those will do a good job,the good thing about vinegar is that it is a natural laundry softener and really helps to keep your clothes free of soap or detergent residue.One word of caution that should have been mentioned about using Borax in your wash is not to use hot water with Borax as it can partially convert to peroxide and cause some surprising results on your colored clothes so if you use borax use cold water which is all I ever use anyways.
We have a friend who has extreme chemical sensitivities and most odors really make her sick. We use soap nuts in our laundry. Got them from Amazon. about 5 soap nuts in a cloth bag and you can do about 4-5 loads. I have started adding borax to my laundry also. They do a pretty good job with no odor, no chemicals. When the nuts start to degrade, toss them in the compost. Although gray water is illegal here in Colorado, the soap nuts are fine for using your gray water from what I read.
We recently made clothes detergent using the washing soda, borax and fels naptha soap recipe from livingonadime.com Does anyone know if the grey water from using it in the washing machine is safe to use in the garden?
Diynatural.com has a lot of homemade laundry soap recipes, even for front loading machines. I use the homemade powder detergent and it works great, it's cheap to make and a double batch lasts forever!
Kristie, you go to Hillbilly Housewife or Living on a Dime websites, they both have similar recipe's. I love making my own laundry soap. Be sure to have a 5 gal bucket for your soap.
Kristi, you can go to Hillbilly housewife, or Living on a Dime website and they have a recipe for laundrey soap. I use it. It does not suds up, but it cleans. It is cheap. Be sure to find a large bucket. about 5gal.
Does anyone have a recipe for MAKING laundry soap? I thought this is what the article was going to be about...
Doesn't a front load washer have a slot for putting in additives and fabric softeners?
Any clues and hints for those of us who use front loading washing machines? We can't really open the door to add anything during the cycle, at least not without making a huge mess on the kitchen floor.