Homemade Nontoxic Laundry Detergent for Hard Water

Plain Soap

• Grate, grind up or boil and melt a bar of plain, colorless, unscented soap to use as a base for your DIY detergent. Vegetable oil-based castile soap, which comes in bar or liquid form, is nontoxic, non-irritating and inexpensive, which is why it appears in many detergent recipes. Use an essential oil scented castile soap if you prefer scented laundry detergents, or add up to 10 drops of your favorite essential oil to replace your preferred detergent scent. Clean loads of delicates, jeans or dark cottons with only 1/2-cup castile soap, even in hard water. Add other ingredients to your DIY detergent for other loads.

Washing Soda and Borax

• Washing soda and borax, both natural mineral salts, soften water while they cleanse your clothes. Borax also has fabric softening and mild bleaching abilities. These ingredients round out most homemade detergent recipes. Per load, these recipes require 1/2-cup washing soda, 1/2-cup borax and 1 cup of soap; but for hard water, you should increase all ingredients to equal parts for extra cleaning effectiveness. Make a liquid detergent by dissolving soap flakes in a pot with 6 cups of water, over medium heat. Add the other ingredients, and cook the mixture until it thickens. Take the pot off the stove, and combine its contents with a quart of hot water. Stir well, and store in a lidded, wide-mouth container that you can easily shake or stir. Use 2 tbsp. of the powered detergent or 1 cup of liquid detergent in each load.

Soap Nut Solution

• Soapberry trees yield small, yellowish and leathery fruits, called soapberries or soap nuts, which contain a naturally cleansing pulp. Natural household cleaners and detergents make use of the fruit's nontoxic and sanitizing properties. To create your own DIY soap nut detergent, first purchase soap nuts in bulk or buy a soapberry tree to yield your own fruit. Place the fruit pieces in a cotton drawstring bag, tie the bag closed and throw it in with your laundry. While most instructions call for only two or three soap nuts per bag, to use them with hard water, double that amount. You can reuse your soap nuts up to seven times before they'll lose their effectiveness, which is usually signaled by a softening texture and lighter color. Create a liquid soap nut detergent by adding 20 soap nuts to 8 cups of boiling water. Cool the water, mash up the fruit and reheat. Repeat this process three or four times, strain the liquid and refrigerate.

Baking Soda and Vinegar Booster

• If your DIY detergent isn't delivering the desired results, add a nontoxic booster, such as baking soda or vinegar. Baking soda cleans, deodorizes and overall increases your homemade detergent's effectiveness. Try substituting baking soda for washing powder in your DIY detergent recipe, or add 1/2 cup of baking soda to each load as a general booster. You can also use baking soda as a pretreatment paste on tough stains, such as underarm or collar stains. Use 1/2 cup white vinegar during the rinse cycle of each load, which will counteract the graying effect soap formulas can have when used with hard water. Added vinegar also attacks musty smells and some mildew deposits.