Don’t worry, I won’t start airing any dirty laundry today! This post is really more of a curiosity, hanging on the clotheslines of “so, that’s how it’s made.” Recently, laundry day was looming, the pod-style detergent in the cabinet was dwindling, and I was itching for a change. There’s a cute local soapery down the road that’s known for using all-natural ingredients, like shea butter, avocado oil, and the like. A friend of mine worked at this clean chain and raved about their great smelling laundry soap and how well it cleaned clothes.
Why not try it, right? After choosing a two-pound bag of their clean cotton scent, I got my wash on. The ingredients listed on the bag were simple–washing powder, soda ash, citric acid and fragrance oil (phthalate and sulfate-free of course…whatever that means). If that’s all this stuff was, then why not try to save a few $$ and figure out the recipe. My friend didn’t remember the exact one, so I started doing a little detective work and turned my kitchen into a chemistry lab!
Before I dive into the dirty work about how all-natural laundry detergent is concocted, let’s talk borax. The original all-natural laundry detergent additive!
On a shelf in the laundry detergent aisle at your local mega-mart, a box of 20 Mule Team Borax probably lies in wait. Anyone with a kid who has a slime-making obsession knows borax is a required ingredient to make gooey Gak. (You can find a recipe for it here.) But besides Flubber, what’s this white powder’s uses?
Naturally found as a white or yellowish crystal, borax or sodium borate is the result of repeated evaporation in seasonal lakes. It can be found concentrated in ore veins or on ground surfaces. According to minerals.net, borax was first discovered in dry lake bed deposits in Tibet, and commonly traded along the Silk Road in the 8th Century AD. The Chinese used it in colorful enamel glazes, while Egyptians used the mineral for embalming mummies. Babylonians used it in their gold smithing. Today, borax is usually ground into a powder and is in a wide range of products–detergents, cosmetics, biochemistry buffer solutions, and in fire retardants. It’s also used to manufacture fiberglass, acts as a flux in metallurgy, and gets rid of pesky ants like boric acid does. (1)
My first introduction to borax was in Death Valley. In fact, borax helped put Death Valley National Park on the map! Prior to 1849, Death Valley was home to the Timbisha Shoshone tribe. Its members lived off the land at all elevations in the Valley, migrating with the seasonal foods and weather conditions. The Timbisha Shoshone obviously knew how hot Death Valley could be in the summertime. It took gold being discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California to give Death Valley it’s infamous notoriety with the rest of the world.
Gold Rush fever in 1849 was burning hot in many folks’ minds as they packed up and headed west for a better life. One particular group of eager pioneers, the San Joaquin Company, faced a decision in Salt Lake City. Snow would start flying soon over the passes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, making it difficult to impossible to pass over. Thoughts of the doomed Donner Party must have raced through their heads. To save time, these ’49ers decided to take the unused Old Spanish Trail, leading them south of the Sierra Nevadas and out of the thick winter snows.
So not only were they behind on their travel itinerary, but they were traversing down a trail no pioneer wagon train had gone previously. And their group could only find one person in Salt Lake City who would willingly guide the group on the Old Spanish Trail! Just when one would think things would smooth out, the folks in this 107 wagon train started getting angry and frustrated they weren’t moving along fast enough. Their guide, a Captain Hunt, only moved as fast as the slowest wagon.
Fortunately for the Andretti wagon set, a unknown man showed up in their camp near the present town of Enterprise, Utah. The disgruntled pioneers listened with intrigue about a so-called short cut across the desert, over the hills at Walker Pass, and through the valleys to California. The best part was this miraculous route would shave 500 miles off of an already miserable trip! The majority of the wagon party opted for this route, with a hand-drawn map to guide them. Captain Hunt and a handful of practical pioneers continued south. (Guess Captain Hunt didn’t opt “To boldly go where no man has gone before.”)
About 50 miles further down this unknown trail, near the present-day Utah-Nevada state line, the group came across a series of foreboding canyons. The members of 20 wagons decided to heave and haul their Conestogas through these crevasses. The rest of the party retraced their tracks and joined the train still heading south on the Old Spanish Trail. However, somewhere near the current town of Rachel, NV (AKA the “UFO Capital of the World”) and the Nevada Test Site, the dwindling troop got into another spat and split again. The Bennett-Arcan party headed south for the snow they saw on Mt. Charleston (near present day Pahrump, NV), while the Jayhawkers band continued on the intended western route. Both groups ultimately ended up in Death Valley. Highway 190 from Death Valley Junction to Furnace Creek is on the same route these groups took.
Converging at Travertine Springs, the present site of Furnace Creek, the groups spent Christmas 1849 on Death Valley’s floor. I’m not sure how they celebrated, but their 500 mile shortcut turned into two more months wandering across the Great Basin and Northern Mojave deserts. Weary and worn out on all levels, the group separated again. The main challenge for both parties was figuring out a way to cross over the forbidding western wall of the Panamint Mountains. The Jayhawkers headed north to the Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes and crossed out of Death Valley over Towne Pass.
The Bennett-Arcan faction, on the other hand, misinterpreted the Panamint Mountains for the Sierra Nevadas. After struggling across the rugged salt flats and attempting to cross through Warm Springs Canyon, the group went back to Travertine Springs. Mostly families with children, the tired troop waited for another month on the valley floor. Two men, William Lewis Manly and John Rogers, walked about 300 miles to get supplies from just “over the mountain.” One person died during the wait. A member of the Bennett-Arcan party is noted as stating, “Goodbye, Death Valley” as they left the valley across the mountains. Hence, the name.
Prospectors, mainly gold and silver grubbers, flocked to the rugged mountains in the Death Valley region. But in 1873, borate prospectors were out in full force on the hunt for white gold this time. Fueled by rumors that railroad lines were in the works outside of Death Valley, a borate prospector named Henry Spiller stopped by Aaron and Rosie Winters’ cabin, at Ash Meadows in Nevada. Spiller showed the Winters samples of cotton ball borax called ulexite. He also disclosed the lucky person who found significant amounts of the bulbous stuff would be fabulously wealthy. Spiller even demonstrated how to test for the mineral’s presence using a mixture of sulphuric acid and alcohol, and a flame.
So what’s a couple to do? Go see for themselves! After Spiller left the next day, Aaron and Rosie traveled forty miles across the Funeral Mountains on Death Valley’s eastern side and down to the valley floor near Furnace Creek. They found ample amounts of those cotton ball looking samples to test. Using the process Spiller described, Aaron crushed the salts into a dish, poured the acid and alcohol concoction on it, lit a match, and stepped back. The result was a glowing green flame, which would grow into more green for Aaron and Rosie. Aaron promptly staked a claim for this chunk of desert land; and immediately sold it for $20,000 in 1881 to William Tell Coleman, a San Francisco borax baron.
Aaron and Rosie Winters Circa 1880 
William Tell Coleman
Coleman’s Harmony Borax Works near Furnace Creek proved to be a back-breaking, extreme and profitable adventure. Forty Chinese workers, working for $1.50 a day, scraped the salt pan on the valley floor for borax containing material. The salts were added to water, boiled, and cooled to allow the pure borax to precipitate out of the solution. In temperatures below 120 degrees, this process worked well. But the extreme summer heat caused borax production to suspend. You’d think the pause in production was to provide relief for the toiling workers. But the reality was the water just wasn’t cold enough to cause the borax to fall out of it. When the folks and I lived in Death Valley, water out of the tap was always luke-warm to warm. There never was such as thing as a cold shower on a hot day. Cold water meant it went into the fridge!
108 Degrees F at 11:27 PM on July 2, 2017 
Old Harmony Borax Works (2017) 
Old Harmony Borax Works (1928)
Once the pure borax was crystallized, it was hauled to the railroad, 162 miles south at Mojave, California. Every fourth day between mid-September and mid-June, a new wagon team started out on the ten-day journey. Each wagon was driven by a “muleskinner” who was in charge of the drive and animals. He was assisted by another man known as a “swamper.” The swamper minded the rear-wagon brake when necessary and performed camp chores such as cooking, cleaning up and gathering firewood. Drivers earned $100 to $120 a month, while swampers received $75.
The massive wagons necessary to haul borax were pulled by a 20 mule team, which was technically 2 draft horses and 18 mules. Each wagon measured 16 feet long by 4 feet wide by 6 feet deep. Unloaded, the wagon weighed 7800 pounds alone, but could carry 10 tons of processed borax. The back wheels on these sturdy vehicles stood 7 feet tall, with front ones 5 feet high. Individual wheels weighed 1000 pounds each and took four men to change. When ready to roll, each team, complete with two wagons pulling a 1,200-gallon steel water tank, packing additional supplies, and fully loaded with borax weighed in at a whopping 36.5 tons! That’s just over 39 Volkswagen Beetle cars! Two of these original team setups are in Death Valley today–at the Old Harmony Borax Works site and at the nearby Furnace Creek Ranch. (2)
Only five years after it began, Harmony Borax Works officially ceased production of cotton ball borate ore in 1888. Coleman went bust with other business ventures that proved to be disastrous. The Works site and subsequent ore was eventually incorporated into Francis Marion Smith’s company, the Pacific Coast Borax Company.
The Pacific Coast Borax Company created the now famous “20 Mule Team” brand. Stephen Mather, the founding director of the National Park Service, was a muleskinner for the Pacific Coast Borax Company. He felt the brand would appeal to the mystique and unique lore of Death Valley, as well as promote the borax brand. With some convincing, Smith thought this was a worthwhile and profitable marketing ploy.
By 1930, Pacific Coast Borax was expanding their marketing campaigns over the radio airways with a weekly show called Death Valley Days. Folks flocked to their RCAs and Motorolas to listen to The Old Ranger recall frontier western tales set in 1800’s Death Valley. Pacific Coast Borax crafted each program to end with a moral about the featured real people and places; as well as conveniently peppering the program pauses with cleaning commercials featuring their powdery product. After 15 years on the airways, the radio show moved to television consoles everywhere, featuring a similar wholesome, squeaky-clean message. Death Valley Days featured famous actors such as James Caan, Clint Eastwood, Angie Dickinson, and President, then actor, Ronald Reagan. (Death Valley Days is one of the longest running television Western series in history–1952 to 1970). In addition to being on the show, President Reagan promoted the Boraxo-powdered hand soap during commercial breaks.
Today, Death Valley National Park is widely visited by visitors at all times of the year. The Timbisha Shoshone people still live in Death Valley on a 40-acre area called the Timbisha Indian Village near Furnace Creek. In November 2000, the Village became the first tribal reservation within a National Park. Coincidentally, every November the Death Valley ’49ers hold an annual Encampment celebrating all things related to Western heritage and the ’49er parties. Live western music, reenactments, cook-outs, art exhibitions, and other festivities span a full week of festivities. You can catch episodes of Death Valley Days on YouTube these days. And borax? It’s popular with the all-natural cleaning connoisseurs and sparkly slime making masses.
Now that we’ve gotten that cleaned up, let’s get on to soap and suds! Soap making by itself isn’t hard. There’s only three ingredients required–a fat of some sort, water and lye. Fat and water are self-explanatory, but lye isn’t.
Back in the day, water was poured through hardwood ashes to create lye. In 1772 Philadelphia, the seemingly common wood ash created quite a stir. The “Soap Boilers” union declared a campaign against one ash monopolizing man named Mr. John Rhea. Rhea sent his cronies out into the city to gather up and pay a small amount to all of its inhabitants for their fireplace ashes. Rhea in turn would make lye from the ashes, and sell the finished product to the soap and leather makers for an exaggerated price. Who would have thought there’d be soap gouging?! But on a bubblier note, here’s a little tune titled “Young Soap Grease and His Dad” from 1884…
Today, lye can be purchased in a crystalized form called sodium hydroxide, or pre-mixed with water. It’s pretty potent stuff though. There’s a reason why soap was always made outside in large kettles–the toxic smell! I highly recommend wearing gloves, a mask (We all have one floating around somewhere!), and working in a well-ventilated area.
My G-Grandma described soap making as a child in 1890-1910’s era Wisconsin. The neighbor’s large pig died, so the wife wanted to make soap. After cutting the fat off of the carcass, it was boiled down in a large iron kettle outside. G-Grandma’s job was to keep the fire stoked. Lye from the dripping wood ashes was added to the lard, stirred and poured into containers. She described the soap as soft, a sickly sort of yellow, not too sweet smelling, but potent! G-Grandma’s recipe for soap making is below if you’re fixing to slaughter a pig in the near future.
Swine is extremely fine, just not in my soap. I prefer coconut oil. Coconut is a natural antibacterial agent, so using it to clean stinky socks is perfect! (Coconut’s antiseptic properties can be read here.) Coconut oil can be purchased almost anywhere, but I order mine from Bramble Berry, an online soapery supplier. I pop the container into the microwave for a few seconds to melt the solidified oil and go from there!
Making the lye-water mixture to mix with the melted coconut oil is the longest step. Ideally, the temperature for the coconut oil and lye-water mixture should be around 90 to 100 degrees F. However, lye and water create a chemical heat reaction. So gradually stir the lye crystals into room temperature water. I learned the hard way…heated water + lye = boiling hot volcano-like reaction. Not good! There’s a reason “Danger!” is on the lye bottle. Due to the corrosive nature of lye, I use glass and stainless steel equipment to mix everything together with. And definitely, wear gloves, a mask, and work in a well-ventilated area! The lye-water mixture will take some time to cool off. The thermometer picture below was taken about an hour after mixing!
When the coconut oil and lye-water mixture both reach about 90 degrees F, stir the lye into the oil. An immersion blender helps whirr everything together into a slick batter. In soap making, there’s various consistencies called “trace”. The oil type and additives used in soap recipes decides whether or not a thin, medium or thick trace is required. It’s all explained here. I opt for a thin to medium trace with coconut oil. The newly-stirred soap has a cake batter like consistency and is poured into a loaf mold to set up.
The soap solidifies within 24 hours. Within a day of making it, I slice the load into thin layers and spread them out on baking sheets covered with parchment paper. When the slices are easily broken and crumbly, the soap can be ground up a food processor, grinder, grater, or blender. Each of these work well, but the bottom line is the soap needs to be bone dry. I frequently stir the slices or powder, and regrind, as needed. In the humid climate here in the Mid-South, this takes anywhere from one to two weeks. One 10-inch loaf grinds into about 8 cups of coconut soap powder.
Slices 
Ground Chunks 
Ground Powder
From here, it’s a matter of mixing the Coconut Soap Washing Powder with two other ingredients to make the final Laundry Soap Powder. Washing soda (AKA soda ash or sodium carbonate) is an alkaline solvent used to remove grease and other common laundry stains from dirty clothes. It also acts as a water softener. However, it’s not the same as baking soda. The Spruce does an excellent job explaining other uses for washing soda.
Citric acid is the last ingredient you need to finish out the Laundry Soap Powder. The citric acid also acts as a natural stain remover and lime-scale remover from washing machines. But more importantly, it’s necessary to neutralize the alkalinity in the washing soda. If you remember from Chemistry 101, alkaline and bases combine to create pH levels. The combination of washing soda and citric acid make this recipe closer to the pH of our skin. (It’s 4.7 if you’re curious.) Amazon sells washing soda here and citric acid here.
The last, and most perfumey part, is using fragrance oils in your final Laundry Soap Powder. Without it, the powder is perfectly fine to use. Your freshly laundered fabrics will smell neutrally clean. If having different smells for different fabrics is your thing, however, this is where I think the fun begins! Bramble Berry, again, sells a wide range of phthalate-free fragrance oils that are perfectly acceptable to use. Their Energy scent is a great citrusy pick-me-up, but Crisp Cotton is refreshing as well. Nature’s Garden is another fragrance oil distributor with reputable oils and an extensive variety. Green Clover and Aloe smells light and fresh on linens, but Narcissist is a musky, spicy scent the guys in my house love. One word of caution though…double check each individual scent before buying to ensure it’s bath and body and cold-process soap safe.
I wear gloves to rub about 1.5 to 2.0 ounces of fragrance oil into one batch of the Laundry Soap Powder. If your Coconut Soap Washing Powder is not dry enough, your powder can solidify after adding fragrance oil.
Each batch of Laundry Soap Powder according to the recipe below makes approximately one pound of detergent (about 30 tbsp.). If you use mix up all of Coconut Soap Washing Powder, you will have around eight pounds of detergent (roughly 240 tbsp.). When using this recipe, anywhere from one to three tbsp. of powder are needed depending on load sizes.
- Small loads = 1 tbsp. scoop powder
- Medium loads = 1 to 2 tbsp. scoops powder
- Large loads (deep wash) = 3 tbsp. scoops powder
To make fabrics feel a little softer, add 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar to the rinse or bleach compartment of your washer. Vinegar is also excellent to remove any musty smells from heavy fabrics like towels. If you use a dryer, go the extra step and use wool dryer balls for extra fluffiness. The lanolin in the wool helps soften and fluff everything up too.
If you’re wondering where’s the borax is, well, I just don’t use it in laundry. I started using this version, based on the Soap Queen‘s recipe for heavy duty laundry, and haven’t looked back. Nonetheless, Twenty Mule Team’s DIY Laundry Soap featuring their borax is here. Now, the bigger question is what scent should I use with today’s whites?! Happy washing!
DIY All-Natural Laundry Soap
It’s laundry day! With all-natural ingredients like coconut, washing soda, and citric acid, your clothes will be squeaky clean and fresh-smelling. Scent your laundry to suit your mood, as well as fabric type!
Adapted from Soap Queen’s “Recipe Three: For heavy duty loads”
- Yield: Makes 1 pound Detergent (About 30 tbsp. powder) 1x
Ingredients
For Coconut Soap Washing Powder (1% Superfatted):
32 ounces coconut oil
5.7 ounces (161.5 g) sodium hydroxide (lye)
12.7 ounces (361.1 g) distilled water
For Laundry Soap Powder:
1 cup Coconut Soap Washing Powder (see recipe above)
1 cup washing soda (sodium carbonate)
1/4 cup citric acid
1.5 to 2.0 ounces fragrance oil*
Instructions
To Make Coconut Soap Washing Powder:
Use a digital scale to weigh out the lye and water amounts. Prepare lye-water solution by gradually stirring lye crystals into room temperature distilled water using a medium-sized glass bowl and a stainless steel spoon. Be sure to wear a mask and gloves. Work in a well-ventilated area. The solution will heat up instantly. Using a thermometer, let solution cool to between 90 and 100 degrees F.
In a large glass bowl, melt the coconut oil in the microwave for 30 seconds to one minute. Stir until oil is liquified and is around 90-100 degrees F. Add lye-water solution to coconut oil and blend with an immersion blender until the mixture is completely incorporated together and has the consistency of cake batter. Pour into a 10-inch loaf mold. (Utensils and bowls can be washed by hand or in your dishwasher.)
Let loaf rest for approximately 24 hours before slicing into thin layers. Lay slices in a single layer on parchment or wax-paper lined baking sheets to dry. Flip slices frequently. When slices are dry to the touch, opaque-looking and crumbly feeling, grind or grate them into a powder. Pour powder onto same parchment/wax-paper lined baking sheets to dry again. Stir powder frequently. (Depending on your weather, this may take 2+ weeks time.) The soap powder must be extremely dry before using in Laundry Soap recipe. One 10-inch loaf makes approximately 8 cups of Coconut Soap Washing Powder.
To Prepare Laundry Soap Powder:
In a large glass bowl, blend Coconut Soap Washing Powder, washing soda, citric acid, and fragrance oil (if desired). Wear gloves to throughly rub fragrance oil into the powders; or leave unscented. Store the Laundry Soap Powder in a container of your choice, such as glass jars. Be sure to label with the scents and date you created.
To Use Laundry Soap Powder:
Based on your load size, layer clothes and other washable fabrics with Laundry Soap Powder according to:
Small loads = 1 tbsp. scoop powder
Medium loads = 1 to 2 tbsp. scoops powder
Large loads (deep wash) = 3 tbsp. scoops powder
Before washing, add 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar to the rinse/bleach compartment of your washing machine to help soften your fabrics. (Your washed clothes won’t smell like vinegar.). Run washer according to desired setting. Air dry or machine dry using wool dryer balls.
Notes
*Fragrance oil is completely optional.
IMNPB
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