This recipe is great for clothes and cloth diapers and does not contain borax! I am personally a-okay with borax in my detergent but many readers have asked for another solution and this is it. In addition, it uses Eco Nuts Soap Nuts, not manufactured soaps, making it even more natural, earth & skin friendly. I hope you enjoy it!
You can find my original Laundry Detergent Recipe & Cloth Diaper Detergent Recipe here. If you would like a liquid soap nuts recipe you can find it here.
Large Batch Recipe
- 3 Boxes Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (55 oz ea)
- 1 Tub OxiClean Free or “Baby” (3 lbs)
- 1 Large Box of Eco Nuts Soap Nuts (approx 8 cups of berries) (or 4 cups soap nuts powder)
- 1 Box Baking Soda (16 oz)
Reminder: Soap Nuts are not actually nuts, they are a dried berry shell that looks a bit like a nut. They are completely safe for those with nut allergies. Learn more in my post, Cleaning With Fruit: Let’s Talk Soap Berries.
You will also need:
A blender or food processor with a good seal (grinding the berries can be dusty!), a hand towel (to help contain the dust) and a trash bag or large bucket with lid.
Make it!
- You will need to first grind up all of your berries. Do so by adding half of the berries with half of the baking soda. Pulse until finely and evenly ground. Repeat with the second half of the berries and baking soda. Holding a hand towel on the top of the blender will help keep the dust to a minimum. Wait for the dust to settle before opening the lid.
- Pour all of the ingredients into a trash bag or bucket with lid and shake/toss/massage until well blended.
- Pour into a bucket for storage & scoop out a jar full to keep by your washing machine!
This detergent will dissolve best in warm water. To help, you can swirl a tablespoon or two in a cup (I like to use a jar) of warm water before tossing it into your washing machine.
Small Batch Recipe
- 1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
- 1/2 cup of OxiClean Free or “Baby”
- 1 trial size box of Eco Nuts Soap Nuts
- 1/4 cup Baking Soda
How to Use:
Use 2 tablespoons per standard load and just 1 tablespoon per HE load, you can add more depending on soil level. As with any detergent, be sure to pretreat any tough spots. Be sure to check out my DIY Pretreater Recipe for that.
Remember that this detergent will dissolve best in warm water. Swirl your tablespoon or two in cup (I like to use a jar) of hot water before tossing it into your washing machine or simply use warm water (though cold will save electricity!)
Love it! Can you add EO’s to it for scent?
Absolutely! EOs are a great way to add a little fragrance.
How much would you add? Any certain scents that are better than others? I was planning on using this for clothes and diapers… Thanks!
Hi- I’m new to your site and may e you’ve already answered this somewhere else, but, is the Eco nuts laundry detergent safe for cloth diapers? Thanks!
Eco Nuts are completely cloth diaper safe. It’s a natural soap that does not leave residue.
How much would I use for cloth diapers? I have made the liquid soap nuts detergent, but it goes bad before I can use it all
I would try using 2-3 tablespoons for a standard washing machine or 1-2 for an HE machine – depending on how soiled the diapers are and how hard or soft your water is. For soft water or a baby not on solid foods, I would try the smaller amount and see how that works for you.
Pinning this! Thanks so much!
Any idea approximately how many tblspoons (or loads) it makes?
I love that you found a septic safe recipe!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
The large batch recipe should yield over 500 tablespoons based on my estimates.
Where can you buy the soap nuts? (preferably ground up already)
You can find soap nuts powder here.
http://www.privatelabelsoapnuts.com/purchase-soap-nuts-wholesale-bulk/
Great idea!
Either this detergent or the liquid version will be my first project this summer. I am excited to try soap nuts in any capacity! Thank you!
has anyone calculated how much this soap comes out per scoop? large batch vs. smaller ?
This is one of the best hygiene methods for young kids. Please suggest if we could add lemon grass to it to add new fragrance to this formula.
Also please suggest whether it can be used along with routine bady wash powders.
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Hi! I have been reading that some of the ingredients in OxyClean, particularly the ethoxylated alcohol, are not the best for the environment. The manufacturer of OxyClean also considers its ingredients proprietary and keeps a tight lid on it. Can you sub Borax for the OxyClean in this with the same results? Thanks!
I wouldn’t. Borax can break down the PUL and prematurely age elastic.
OxyClean Free (& Baby) has a great rating on the EWG database. (Their standard version does not rate so well.) It’s entirely up to you, but I feel comfortable using the Free version in this.
Borax doesn’t do the same thing, so I’m not sure that substitution would be ideal for this. I do have a detergent recipe that includes it, but it also has an oxygen cleaner in it.
Hi! I was just looking at the eco nuts and saw that the same company has an oxygen booster powder. Could that be used instead of the Oxy free??
Or would something like Ecover’s Powdered nonchlorine bleach work?
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Thanks for sharing the recipe.. Looking forward to trying it.
Hey Amanda! I’ve been sharing this recipe quite a bit lately and wanted to let you know that one of our group members calculated the cost to be 8/9 cents a load for the large batch! 🙂
Thank you so much!
Hi! I was thinking about buying the already ground soup nuts from the link mentioned about. Do you know how much I should use for this recipe?
Never mind! Sorry I see that it is 4 cups! Very excited to try this 😉
Hi there! Thanks so much for posting these recipes! We’re expecting our first baby in a few weeks and have been looking for a detergent that is safe for CD. One quick question…do you have any idea how many cups come in the pre-ground soap nuts sold on the site you suggested? It says it is a 2.2 lb bag.
Also, in your opinion which recipe works best for CD? This one or the one with borax? Thanks again!
Thanks! The CD recipe I use now basically has no disinfectant component, and I’ve been wanting to add that. Are soap nuts disinfecting?
Also, rather than mix it all up, I will just put the ingredients in my laundry room and take the appropriate proportioned scoop of each. Less mess and prep IMO.
I was curious as to your thoughts on the effectiveness of this recipe. I love the idea of it and want to make it, but I’ve been trying my hand at different detergent recipes and haven’t been thoroughly impressed by any of them so far. I CD so I need to be careful with my ingredients and my husband wears white shirts for work that need to be bright and like new white. I really want to find a diy one I like because it’s not only cheap but I’ll know exactly what’s in it. Any thoughts on this matter would be greatly appreciated! Also, you mention using 2 tablespoons per “standard” load. Would you consider that a medium or large load? Thanks!
I would consider it a fairly large load, but not packed. I always do a full load. For cloth diapers – depending on what baby is eating (breast/bottle or foods) – you may want to use a bit more detergent to help everything get fully cleaned.
Is there a reason it is necessary to grind the baking soda with the soap nuts or could I just grind the soap nuts and then mix them in with the rest of the powder?
The reason is that the berries can become gummy/hard with the heat from the cutting. Putting in the baking soda helps keep it drier.
Hey Amanda,
Does the powdered form last longer than the liquid detergent?
I don’t think so, unless you made a rather large batch. I made a batch of the liquid and it still worked well months after being made. I imagine that it would last indefinitely if you froze it. (Some people like to freeze it in ice cubes for easy portioning/measuring.)
It is very nice post to get the laundry detergent recipe and its very easy to made at home.
this was fascinating. I’ve heard of saving used soap nuts (once they’ve done their 5-7 loads worth and are worn out) and boiling them down to make a more concentrated liquid detergent – that’s what my sister-in-law does. But this is another great idea. We’ve just started using soap nuts this year but I haven’t gotten brave enough to try them with my cloth diapers yet, I’m just afraid they won’t get clean enough!
Its very easy to make it the laundry detergent recipe at home thanks for sharing the very easy recipe.
Do you think this detergent would still work well if the oxiclean were left out? I only add a little BioKleen oxygen bleach to some loads as needed because if overused can cause clothes to fade. What are your thoughts, Amanda?
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To make the detergent at home by using the soap and the nuts, but the effectiveness is not as much compare to the detergent.
To making a detergent at home its very cheap other than detergent powder..and we can use it so long times and its result also good compare to detergent powder so i also recommended the home made detergent powder.
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If I have no particular objection to borax, is there any benefit to adding it in some portion to this recipe? Conversely, would adding soapnuts to the borax-using cloth-diaper detergent recipe be useful, or just a waste of money?
Love this for cloth diapers. Its worked so well! Soap nuts alone didn’t clean quite well enough but this is awesome! Thank you!
Is it possible to just use the oxiclean and soap nuts or would that not be as effective?
I would put a caution to the cloth diaper safe. I used the with mine, but even with the soapnuts ground very fine the fibers get imbeded in the micro fiber inserts. Its very hard to remove. So for the diapers I use the base mix and then the soapnuts in the bag provided by manufacturer. The recipe works fabulous for the cloth diapers otherwise. Never any residue or smell left in the microfiber like in others I have tried.
Just want to follow up the comments
Your detergent recipe is the best I’ve found so far. Found it last week, prepared detergent on
Tuesday and am now looking at super clean diapers! Thanks a lot!!