Making Your Own Detergents Can Save You Money Over the Course of a Year

I already knew some of the simple and cheap detergents could be made for less than the cost of detergents sold in stores. I have even written about this topic on more than one occasion.

Lemon Kool-Aid as a dishwasher detergent ingredient.

There is one thing in the article mentioned above is I had never considered lemon Kool-Aid as one of the ingredients for homemade dishwasher detergent. After thinking about it for a moment, I don't know why it wouldn't work since one ingredient is the dehydrated lemon used as part of the Kool-Aid.

Lemon juice as an ingredient in dishwasher and laundry detergents.

I knew lemon juice by itself can be used as a cleaning agent and a "bleaching" agent for hair. I have used lemon juice on both counts. I had used the lemon juice as a hair lightener as one option as a teen for streaking my hair because at the time I had hair to the middle of my back. The cost of streaking my hair even in the 80s was expensive even back then at a hair salon.

Borax is the most popular additive for homemade detergents.

I also know borax is a good cheap ingredient to have when you have a baby in the house. It's a great detergent item to have on hand for clothes and cloth diapers. Yes, I had those I washed myself even after using a diaper laundry service. Sure saved a boatload of money over disposable diapers when you figure in the cost of baby formula.

Washing soda is not the same as baking soda.

The article goes on to add information about laundry detergent and which type of powder soda is needed for this homemade product. Baking soda and washing soda are not the same products when making your own powder laundry detergent. The washing soda has a higher alkaline than the baking soda which makes it perfect for washing clothes rather than baking.

The not so common cleaning products to use.

Brandon Ballenger talks about other cleaning products that are not typically used as cleaners around the home at the bottom of the article. However, one item he failed to mention was hydrogen peroxide.

It serves as a disinfectant for counters. It can be used as a cleaner to remove some of the gunk out of cuts on your counter and from your grout without harm to the surfaces or people considering the minute amount used and left on any surface. Just don't use it for areas of your body (as a nasal spray or a douche ingredient) not a good idea as stated by doctors and the CDC. With peroxide a good case of common sense is to be used with this particular product as with any other over the counter ingredient like rubbing alcohol and mouthwash.