Clean laundry, ahhhh. It’s wonderful, but can sometimes seem so elusive.
I have been searching for the perfect natural laundry detergent for almost two years, and it has sometimes been frustrating and annoying when detergents don’t work as well as I want or expect them too. I admit that several times over the past two years I have returned to All Free & Clear, which was the detergent that my mom used when I was growing up, and there’s something about that comfort of using what your mom used that’s just easy to slip back into.
Because it’s been such a long experiment and process, I really don’t have very good “official” review data for each of these products, but I’ll give you my best, and honest, opinion of them.
Here’s a list of the natural detergents I have tried over the past few years, and my pros and cons for each:
Homemade Detergent
When I made homemade detergent, I used a recipe that I got from my friend Jenica. When I first made the detergent I used a bar of Kirk’s Castile Soap. The second time I made it, I used Fels Naptha, as she suggests.
Cons: I was pretty disappointed with the detergent because I was getting small grease-like spots on my clothing that I thought were from the detergent (I later learned that it most likely wasn’t from that, because even after I stopped using the homemade detergent, I still had problems with the spots).
I didn’t feel like it really got out dirt or stains very well, but I did think that my clothes smelled clean with the Kirk’s Castile Soap – which to me basically means they don’t smell like anything. I didn’t like the scent when I made the detergent with Fels Naptha, it has a pretty strong smell.
Pros: The ingredients are inexpensive and relatively easy to find, and you can make a large batch that will last you for a long time for a low cost. You know exactly what’s in the detergent because you make it yourself at home. I may go back and try this again to see if it would work better for me now.
Even thought I didn’t have a very good experience with homemade detergent, I know lots of people that have, so definitely don’t discount this as a great frugal and green option for your laundry until you’ve tried it for yourself. (And for anyone that’s worried, all of the little spots have since washed out, so none of our clothing was actually ruined.)
Ecover Laundry Wash
Cons: It is pricey, and the bottle is pretty small – it says 20 loads on it. I don’t want to have to buy new detergent every 20 loads! The directions say to use 2-3 capfuls per load of laundry, but that seems like a lot to me. I tried only using one, which would help the bottle to last for more washes, and it was okay. But I think it works best with at least two, and possibly three capfuls for heavily soiled loads.
Pros: This detergent worked pretty well. It has a very light scent, that is not overpowering, and I was pretty happy with how it got out stains and dirt.
I think this detergent is a little too expensive for the amount that you have to use to get your laundry clean. It’s not worth it to me to pay so much for such a small bottle.
Country Save
Cons: I couldn’t find it locally, so I had to order it online and pay for shipping. I’m not always great about ordering stuff online – I would rather run to the store and buy what I need when I run out, so this is the biggest con for me.
Pros: I really liked Country Save for both my regular laundry and my cloth diapers. My clothes came out fresh, clean and soft, even without using fabric softener. I felt it worked really well on stains and dirt. The box lasted for a long time because you don’t have to use as much for an HE machine.
This is really great detergent. It can be used for regular laundry, towels and rags, and even cloth diapers with great results. I wish I could find it locally so I didn’t have to order it online.
Meijer Natural Brand Laundry Detergent
Cons: This detergent did not work well for us at all. The clothes came out of the washer still smelling stinky and kind of musty. It did not work well on stains or dirt. I think we still have half a bottle sitting in our basement, because I just couldn’t use it all up.
Pros: It is easy for me to buy at my local Meijer store and is one of the most economical natural detergents.
I was disappointed in this detergent and would not buy it again.
Green Works Laundry Detergent
I just used this once from a sample that I had. So, take that into consideration with this review.
Cons: This detergent also did not perform well on stains or dirt. The clothes smelled okay, but there was a scent to them, and I would rather there be no scent at all. It is made by Clorox, and I just cannot justify supporting a company that makes so many other toxic cleaning products – even if this one is green.
Pros: It is easy to find at many retail locations, and can be very economical when bought on sale with a coupon.
I didn’t really use this enough to give a complete review of it, but I wouldn’t use it because it’s made by Clorox.
Nellie’s All Natural
Cons: Again, I couldn’t find it locally, so I would have to order it online. And it is more pricey than some of the other options.
Pros: I love Nellie’s for my regular laundry and my cloth diapers. It works great on stains and dirt, and the clothes come out smelling nice and fresh and clean, but not scented. You use one scoop per normal load, so the tin of laundry soda would last for a while. Plus, can I just say that the packaging is so cute!
This is great detergent that works well for all my laundry – clothing, cloth diapers, household towels and rags. I wish I didn’t have to order it online, but to me, it is worth it.
A few things to note:
- I have a HE front loading washer. I almost always wash on cold, except for cloth diapers and household wipes and rags that get washed on hot.
- We have hard water with a water softener. I definitely notice a difference in the effectiveness of our detergent when our softener is low on salt. Your water quality will make a difference in how well a detergent works for you.
- Because most of these detergents that I used for longer periods – Homemade Detergent, Country Save, and Nellie’s All Natural – don’t have optical brighteners in them, and because of our hard water, it is hard to keep my whites looking bright white. I’ve come to accept this as a side-effect of choosing to use natural detergents. So, we really don’t wear many white clothes besides socks, undies, and my hub’s undershirts – which I am okay if they aren’t bright white.
- Also, none of these detergents work perfectly on stains without some kind of pre-treatment/stain remover. We’ll be discussing ways to naturally remove stains, and keep whites looking bright, nest week.
So, as you can probably guess, I have to say my favorite brands of natural laundry detergent that I have tried so far are Country Save and Nellie’s All Natural Laundry Soda. They worked the best on dirt and stains, and left my clothes and other laundry smelling clean and fresh.
Because I know this is not an all-inclusive review of the many different brands of natural laundry detergent out there, I’d appreciate if you all would weigh in with your experience and advice on natural laundry detergents. I’d love for the comments to be full of useful information to add to this post to help others find a natural detergent that will work for them.
Also, this is a great review of eight green and natural laundry detergents at Keeper of the Home.
What kind of detergent do you use? What has been your experience with finding a good natural laundry detergent?
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*Disclosure – I received Ecover’s Laundry Wash and Nellie’s All Natural Laundry Soda for free to review. I always give my best and honest review of a product.
I use Method’s free and clear detergent. I love that it has a pump spout and I can just squirt the detergent in. I’ve used Tide free & clear and Seventh Generation free & clear and both of those irritated my skin. (I know, that makes no sense with 7th Generation, but when I switched back to Method, the problem went away.) I’ve also used soap nuts which were… well… just really cool, but didn’t get the stains out well enough for my liking.
I just discovered that soap nuts work best with warm water. If you use cold water wash, simply soak the soapnuts (still in the muslin bag) in a bowl of very warm water to release the saponin. Then pour the contents of the bowl plus the bag into the wash. Hope this helps. Shirley
Actually, this is my first time to this blog! I have very much enjoyed it! Thanks so much, Shirley
I use nellies and all free and clear because i can get such good coupons. I love nellies. I can actually find it locally at cotton babies and i actually found some bags at goidwill! I dont actually think 8 dollars is too bad for 50 loads.
Onnalee,
Where do you find your Nellie’s coupons? I’d love to find some.
Thanks!
I use 1 cup washing soda, 1 cup Borax, and 2 bars of Ivory Soap (grated). I use Oxyclean spray for stains and add Oxyclean powder for whites. We’ve been pretty happy with it.
I just made a HUGE batch of homemade detergent — borax, washing soda, and Oxi. It works for cloth diapers too. I’ve done about 10 loads, and so far it works great!!
I love my Country Save for everything including our cloth diapers.
I order it in a pack of four boxes from Amazon (subscribe and save with free shipping), which works out to $15 each box (80 loads or 160 HE loads though I use less). I sell my extras to other local CD moms.
Alice.com sells the smaller box and they also do free shipping if you buy 6 items.
We use country save and love it! I do plan to try making my own at some point, but have had a hard time locating borax & washing soda locally!! Country Save is easy to find though, go figure!
I know this is late,like 1 year, but if you have a walmart, just look where they have the fabric softener, they have it all side by side the borax, washing soda,and the soap, i was amazed and happy
I have used Ecos liquid detergent (from Earth Friendly Products) for 4 years now and don’t have a single complaint. It works with my HE washer and I can get a huge bottle (210 loads) of it at Costco for about $13! It also works great with our cloth diaper laundry 🙂
Thanks for your recommendation Elisabeth!
We use Ecover liquid in our front-loader and LOVE it. It can be ordered through Frontier wholesale for nearly half the price, making it a great choice for us.
I am using Method free and clear now, which I like. I’m on about my 8th load. It was pricey, but I had a coupon and it was on sale. I also have a box of 7th generation waiting for me to try out, too. I’m fairly new to natural laundry stuff. I’ve mostly given up fabric softener, at least in the summer, except for towels and sheets. When I use fabric softener, I dilute it half with white vinegar.
I use a homemade recipe using borax, washing soda, and a pink Zote bar. Love the smell of the wet stuff in my 5gal bucket, and clothes come out smelling like nothing! (A good, clean kind of nothing!) I also add a scoop of an oxyclean alternative (but plan to make my own oxyclean once this container is out) and I do pretreat stains with either natural supplies or spray shout/spray n wash stick. (Sometimes it’s just REALLY needed immediately)
I hear ya! It’s so hard to find a natural laundry detergent that works well, is easy to find, and inexpensive! Luckily I’ve had really good luck with the homemade detergent (Ivory snow, Washing Soda, and Borax). Before that the only one I really liked was Shaklee and that was a little expensive. I haven’t had any luck finding a natural softener that I like as well as Shaklee that would be cheaper, so I’m really looking forward to hear what you come up with. I warn you to steer clear of Martha Stewart’s – It stained my whites with blotchy yellow stains and left grease spots on many other items. I have yet to get the yellow stains out, but got the grease stains out with dish detergent (Seventh Generation). Best of luck! I’m new to your blog and I love it! Keep up the good work!
Thanks Crystal! I’m so glad to have you here!
I’m still on a search for a natural detergent. Used Martha Stewart’s Clean smells like skunk but worse. Smell didn’t stay after first wash, but after one or two more washings, smell did not dissipate, and I started to itch, despite using the extra rinse cycle on my HE washer. At nearly 80, I found the container and pump difficult to handle.
I just wanted to recommend this product for stain removal:
http://www.bunchafarmers.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=6
It is all natural and even gets out blood, wine and chocolate stains! {great for reusable cloth pads too!}
It’s 2.99 a bar and I am planning on adding it to my next batch of homemade liquid detergent.
**ps. fels naptha and zote are caustic!! Don’t use them. Ivory soap isn’t natural, either. I recommend highly Dr.Bronners castile BAR soap because it isn’t glycerin based- which is what gives you those greasy spots.***
Rachel,
I make mine with Dr. Bronner’s too and I love it. When I’m feeling lazy, I just mix together the Borax and washing soda in a mason jar…toss in about a teaspoon of that mix and a couple teaspoons of liquid Dr. Bronner’s. Currently digging the Peppermint soap. Love the way my laundry room smells and all the various places in the house where I hang it to dry 🙂
Hi Julie,
I read on the bottle that Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap can be used for laundry, but I’ve been too scared to try it myself. I glad to hear it works for you. At least I know that if I run out of my detergent (probably because I have to order in online and I haven’t gotten around to it yet!) then I can just use what I have on hand. Do you have a front loader, or top loader? Thanks for sharing your experience!
~Emily
I have a front loader so I toss the powdered items in the tub with the clothes and pour the liquids in their appropriate dispensers. When I have time, I make the standard “powdered” mix by shaving the bar soap, drying the shavings overnight, and blending in with the borax/washing soda. Whether it’s the liquid or bar soap version, the nice thing is that the scent evaporates out as it dries. The house smells wonderful for a few hours, but the clothes smell like nothing…perfect.
Thanks for you comment Rachel! I’ll have to check out that stain bar! And if I ever get around to making homemade detergent again, I’ll definitely use Dr. Bronner’s bar soap. What scent do you use?
~Emily
How did the Buncha Farmers Stain Stick work in your homemade laundry detergent? I had that same thought today but can’t find anything online about it.
We have hard water here and it’s so bad that I would like to get a water softener. However, I am concerned that it may be bad to drink and use for cooking. Does anyone know if it is bad to drink/consume water that has been softened?
I know this may be somewhat off the subject, but I don’t know where to get any information. I want a real answer, not what Home Depot and Culligan would say.
We buy our water either from Meijer or the Health food store by refilling our used jugs. It cost us .39 per gallon.
For a natural way to make whites whiter, use this recipe:
Mix three cups of baking soda wtih 1/2 tsp of Prussian Blue pigment (available at art stores). Use 1 tsp of this mix in your final rinse, making sure the bowl is full before adding. For best results dry in direct sunlight.
Source = http://www.wendylsgreengoddess.co.nz/Cleaning_Recipes.php
I had good success with my homemade laundry detergent (blogged about here: http://debsbeesnest.blogspot.com/2008/09/laundry-soap.html) I second not using Fels-Naptha because it has some not-so-friendly ingredients. I do have problems with getting grease stains out so I end up keeping some dish soap nearby for grease stains.
During the school year when I am too busy/lazy to make my own detergent I have had good luck with the BioKleen line of laundry products http://biokleenhome.com/products/household/laundry They are found pretty easily hear in the Pacific Northwest at the grocery and even my local Ace Hardware. I don’t know about the availability in the rest of the country. I especially like the BioKleen Bac-Out for organic stains/urine. It smells great!
Thank you for this!! I use Country Save right now, and while I like it, I feel like my diapers do not get as clean as they could. I just ordered some Nellie’s to try. Very good review of the pros and cons of detergents!
We order country save from amazon in bulk. Saves a bit and then I have plenty to last for a long time. Comes in a case of 4.
I love Nellie’s for the washing machine! It has been with us now for 3 years and I wouldn’t switch! If you buy in bulk and have a buying club or coop, you can order it close to wholesale and get a great price. Call the home office to see if they will work with you.
emily–i LOVE charlie’s soap. have used it exclusively for probably 3 years now….it’s not cheap but you use a small amount and it lasts a long time….and no scent….i’m so with you on clean equaling scent free!
I use Ecover and love it! Mine says 40 loads but I may get more because I use the smallest measurement in the cup. It’s around $13 where I buy it and the Ecover website often has coupons. Thanks for a great article and blog!!
Just as a note to get whiter whites. I have had a lot of success with baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. I just soak my whites in a warm or hot washer load with 1/2C soda and 1C peroxide for 30 minutes. whitens the shirts, socks, and whatnots up in a hurry. It is also really cheap. I buy baking soda at Sam’s club and peroxide is under a dollar for a large bottle. You can use any amount you want really, I just use a 1:2 ratio of soda to peroxide. supposedly this is the concept behind oxi clean and it is a lot cheaper.
All of these brands are excellent, in my experience:
Bi-O-Kleen
Biopac
Ecos/Earth Friendly Products (although the magnolia & lily scent is too strong, in my opinion)
Kirkland Signature (Costco house brand—they make both a conventional and an earth-friendly one)
Seventh Generation
Sun & Earth (not sure if they still make it–haven’t seen it in a while)
Trader Joe’s.
thanks for the honest reviews!
Thanks for this. As much as I am striving to be more green the bottom line is it has to work! This info will be a lot of help!!
Thanks for your review. I was using Country Save with my cloth diapers and my old top loader, but I recently got a new front loader and the Country Save just wasn’t working any more. The diapers needed to be stripped each time I washed. So I’ve recently switched to Rockin Green. It’s working better than the C.S., but I’m still not happy with my diapers since switching to my front loader – more experimenting is in store. Because of my experience with my diapers, I’m hesistant to use these detergents on my clothes since my diapers (and the towel I add) aren’t coming out soft but rather a touch “crunchy.” From your experience, do you think my clothes will come out different than my diapers?
Thanks! – Jess @ OlyMomma
thanks for writing on this subject. I have been tackling this same topic myself, after developing an allergy to a detergent I had used for years. I am playing around with devising my own recipe right now.
I use nellies and all free and clear because i can get such good coupons. It’s 2.99 a bar and I am planning on adding it to my next batch of homemade liquid detergent. I have a front loader so I toss the powdered items in the tub with the clothes and pour the liquids in their appropriate dispensers. It was pricey, but I had a coupon and it was on sale.
Your review of green laundry detergents is not complete until you have reviewed soap nuts laundry detergent!
I love that it has a pump spout and I can just squirt the detergent in. Your review of green laundry detergents is not complete until you have reviewed soap nuts laundry detergent! I warn you to steer clear of Martha Stewart’s – It stained my whites with blotchy yellow stains and left grease spots on many other items.
When making the borax and washing soda recipe, how much of the bar do you use (castille)???
I was so excited to find the recipe (which called for 1/3 of a bar of fels-naptha) until I doubd the fels-naptha and read the back of it and looked it up online!!! So disappointed!!! GREAT to know you can substitute a natural bar soap but how much for the recipe?? I saw online that it said you can substitute ivory but to use the whole bar, but like someone else mentioned, ivorys not natural, free of dyes and perfumes, etc!
I used the whole bar of castille soap when I made this, but now I’m wondering if I could use less? Maybe half a bar? I guess you’d just have to try it and see how it works for you and your washing machine.
~Emily
Very intresting post. I am already using Green Detergent
I often read your posts but rarely comment, I just wanted to say thank you for what you do.
http://kristymakes.blogspot.com/2011/12/diy-laundry-detergent.html?m=1
If you’re using Borax or Fels Naptha please read the post linked to above. She also lists a borax-free recipe for laundry detergent that is fantastic.