My adventures with homemade laundry detergent

Short answer: it works!

Longer answer: I based my recipe off one found on Instructables (I've lost the link or I'd provide it--but you should be able to find it easily enough by plugging "homemade laundry detergent" into Google or another search engine!). Rather than follow the recipe that user posted (it included a few ingredients I wasn't interested in), I used a similar 1:1:1 ratio to make my detergent.

3 bars of Ivory soap, 3 cups washing soda, and 3 cups borax all chopped up in a Cuisinart later, I have enough detergent for...many loads. I don't know exactly how many (somewhere around 70?), but I only need 1/8 cup or the finished product to get my clothing nice and clean, so it should last me a while.

The washing soda and the Ivory do a lovely job of getting my clothes clean, although I've discovered that the Ivory doesn't dissolve quite as well in cold water as I'd like. This might be user error, though, as I didn't chop it up particularly finely. Further experimentation will tell. Still, it's more a minor inconvenience than anything else, since most of my clothing goes on a warm/cool cycle, rather than cool/cool (and never hot/hot). In tepid and warm water, the Ivory dissolves fine, even coarse chopped as I have it.

I'm still not entirely sure what effect the Borax has on my clothing specifically, but I will say this, my washing machine smells and looks much fresher than it's been since it arrived. I've noticed--especially recently--that the barrel smelled vaguely stagnant. Sort of that just-beginning-to-get-mildewy smell that crops up in washers sometimes. Two loads with my homemade detergent later and the washer has completely lost that stagnant smell. I don't recommend sticking your head in your washer to check the scent after using this detergent, but if the cleaner smell of the washer itself is any indication, my clothes are probably cleaner, too.

So all in all? The homemade detergent is definitely worth the 10 minutes of effort put in to putting it together. I'm keeping this habit up, that's for sure. The cleaner clothes are the best part; at this point, the lower cost of the product is just a bonus!