DIY Homemade Washing Powder with Essential Oils

Is Saturday laundry day at your place? With 5 of us the washing on Saturdays feels never ending!

Did you know laundry products (powders, fabric softener, soaks and stain removers) are one of the biggest sources of synthetic fragrance in our homes?

These chemical scents stick on our clothes and are absorbed into our skin as we're wearing our clothes and inhaled at night from our sheets and pillow cases. There's no way this can be good for our health and in fact there's increasing evidence it could be doing real harm. Well no thank you, not at our place!

We switched to lower tox washing powder more than 15 years ago, but then about 4 years ago made the switch to homemade washing powder and haven't looked back!

I've tried LOTS of different recipes and this is by far the best - with the fewest ingredients for the best results.

You can use whatever soap you like but keep in mind that most soaps and soap flakes all have fragrance in them, which is what we are trying to avoid!

I bought 12 bars of Dr Bronner's castille soap bars back in Septemer 2015 and just today used the last one in this batch of washing powder. So obviously it depends how much washing your family does but we seem to get 1-2 months out of each batch.

These are the ingredients I use for my homemade washing powder:

- washing soda
- bicarbonate soda
- salt
- citric acid
- Dr Bronners soap
- essential oils

You can find citric acid in the baking aisle of your supermarket but it's very expensive over time. I buy my citric acid in a 10kg bucket on ebay which works out at about $3 per month. I use it in both my washing powder and dishwashing powder, and it's the BEST toilet cleaner you'll ever use!

Just 1 minutes work and you have delicious smelling and effective washing powder.

DIY Homemade Washing Powder
Adapted from TRTLMT

1 cup washing soda
1 cup bicarb soda
1/2 cup salt
1/4 cup citric acid
1 bar Dr Bronner's castille bar soap
10 drops Lavender essential oil
10 drops Lime essential oil
10 drops Eucalyptus essential oil

Roughly chop your soap and then process until fine (TMX 20 secs / SP 5-9)

If you don't have a food processor or thermomix you can grate the soap by hand on the finest side of your grater (I've done that quite a few times!)

Add all remaining ingredients and mix for 20 seconds or until well combined.

Pour into an airtight container.

Front loader - 1 tablespoon per wash
Top loader - 2 tablespoons per wash

If you are making your washing powder in the Thermomix it's very easy to clean afterwards.

Scrape out as much of the washing powder as you can. Add 500ml water and heat for 5 minutes on 50 degrees / SP 3. You should have a full bowl of suds (keep an eye on it though because the more soap left in the bowl the more suds you'll have and you don't want it to overflow!). Just tip out into the sink (I use it to clean the sink at the same time) then rinse and you have a spotless bowl.

(looks like marshmallow but those are soap suds!)
 
Easy right?

Do you think this is something you'd like to try? x

How to clean your home with essential oils

I have a request.

Stop cleaning your house with toxic chemicals that are 

bad for the environment and bad for your health!

One of the biggest culprits for poor health is fragrance - those fake smells that are found in practically every cleaning and personal care product on the shelves.

I shared on Facebook recently a new book that highlights just how damaging fragrances can be to our health. Author Kate Grenville stated that more than 1/3 of the population reported negative health effects like asthma, allergies and headaches from exposure to fragrance.

Just think about that for a second.

Every day people are exposing themselves to chemicals that are causing them actual physical harm.

Are you one of them?

I've had a low-tox home for more than 15 years now but before that I was oblivious, even though looking back I was constantly experiencing headaches, fatigue and respiratory problems without making the connection.

I used perfume, deodorant sprays, washed my clothes in fragranced washing powder and had a different stinky cleaning product for dishes, benches, floors, toilets ... you name it.

When you add in all all the toxins in my shampoo and conditioner, make up, paints, insect sprays and the chemicals off-gassed from furniture, carpets and curtains, it was total chemical overload.

And that was just in my own home, when we're out in public you can add in everyone else's personal care products, commercial cleaning products, scented candles and air fresheners to deal with.

No wonder I began to suffer the effects of multiple chemical sensitivity in 2002 and ended up having to quit work.

The problem is so pervasive now that fragrance is "the new second-hand smoke" says one blog post which you can read in full here.

"The emerging awareness of this very “volatile” situation reveals problems much more pervasive and dangerous than tobacco smoke.2 Even washing clothes in detergents and fabric softeners containing fragrances releases toxic chemicals onto the skin and into the air all day long.  At night, sleeping in pajamas and on sheets washed in the same toxic materials has the same effect.  Because of this, people are awash in fragrances 24 hours each day."

This is horrifying to me and reading things like this makes me even more committed to not bringing any chemicals into our home.

While I've used low-tox personal care products for over 15 years now, it's really only over the past 8 years, since having our first child, that I've been slowly replacing ALL of our store-bought cleaning products with homemade alternatives. Even the so-called 'green' ones.

I now make my own laundry powder, dishwashing powder, all-purpose spray, insect repellant, mould cleaner, toilet and shower cleaner and window/glass spray.

It's made a big difference not only to the air quality within our home but also to our hip pocket.

Buying these natural cleaning supplies and making my own products is FAR cheaper than buying commercial products.

These are my top natural cleaning supplies:

• Bicarb soda (also known as baking soda)
• Salt
• White vinegar
• Citric acid
• Washing soda
• Castille soap (liquid and bars)
• Pure essential oils

Most of these can be found in the supermarket and the rest can be bought cheaply online. In fact, buying in bulk online is what I do and recommend as the cheapest option.

For example, you can buy a 75g container of citric acid at the supermarket for $2.48, which works out at $33.10 per kg. I bought a 10kg bucket of citric acid on eBay for $66 or just $6.60 per kg. Much more affordable don't you think?

My last 10kg bucket by the way, was bought in September 2015 and still going strong.

My favourite essential oils for cleaning:

•  Lemon
• Orange
• Tea Tree
• Oregano
• Clove
• OnGuard

When you add in the power of pure essential oils, these basic cleaning products are potent and effective and an equal match for anything you can buy at the supermarket.

And bonus, the house smells AMAZING!

So if you're someone who likes to have a fresh smelling house, you will love using essential oils in this way.

To help you get started making your own natural cleaning products with essential oils, I've done up a handy cheat sheet with all my favourite recipes - laundry powder, dishwashing powder and rinse aid, mould cleaner, window/glass cleaner, all purpose spray and cream cleaners (like a Jif alternative).

These are all tried and tested and the recipes I personally make and use at home, with doTERRA certified pure therapeutic grade essential oils. You can read more here about why I only use this brand and the benefits I've been experiencing.

Just click below to grab your copy!

If you aren't using oils yet but would like to know more, please get in touch. Message me at susanking.doterra @ gmail.com to find out how you get your oils for 25% off retail and shipped straight to your door.

Do you make your own cleaning products?

Susan x