Easy and effective, this is the homemade cloth diaper laundry detergent you’ve been looking for! It’s made with simple, clean ingredients, and does a fantastic job cleaning dirty diapers.
Quick Look at the DIY
- 🌿 Form: Powder
- ⏱️ Prep Time: 5 minutes
- 👥 Yield: 36 large loads
- 🥣 Main Ingredients: Oxiclean Free, borax, washing soda
- 👩🍳 Tip: Soap can leave residue buildup on diapers, and since they don’t contain dirt (stool should be rinsed off in the toilet) this formula is designed to be completely soap-free.
Better Than Store-Bought
One of my favorite ways to make my home healthier is by making my own cleaning products. Just like my regular DIY laundry soap, this diaper detergent is so easy to make and extremely effective.
It cleans diapers just as well as any store-bought detergent with simpler, much healthier ingredients. I’ve been using this for years, and my diapers stay clean and odorless. No more diaper rashes around here!
Ingredients
Tools Needed
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1: Combine the Oxiclean, borax, washing soda, and tea tree oil (if you’re using) in a large bowl and stir until well mixed.
Step 2: Then pour the mixture into a 1/2 gallon jar or container to store.
Expert Tip: Even though this laundry powder uses clean ingredients, the dust can still be irritating to your eyes and lungs. Make sure to mix it in a well-ventilated area.
If you’re looking for more DIYs for a healthy home, check out my homemade dishwasher powder and DIY beeswax food wraps!
How to Use
Place the diapers in your washing machine and sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of detergent (depending on the load size) over them each time before running the washer.
For more details, you can read my post all about how to wash cloth diapers.
FAQs
The purpose of soap in laundry detergent is to lift dirt particles off of the cloth. Since poop in cloth diapers is cleaned off in the toilet, there should be no (or extremely minimal) dirt particles left.
Also, soap can easily build up on cloth diapers and cause a variety of issues. For these reasons, this homemade cloth diaper detergent does not use soap.
There is a lot of debate on the safety of borax, however, for washing cloth diapers I don’t see any problem using it. It doesn’t come close to food, and it’s rinsed off completely in the washer.
Yes, since this detergent is low-sudsing, it will work in an HE machine.
If you try this DIY, snap a photo and tag me on Instagram @violet_rightathome
Cloth Diaper Laundry Detergent
Equipment
- 1/2 gallon mason jar (or other container to store it in)
Ingredients
- 3 cups Oxiclean Free
- 2 1/4 cups borax
- 1 1/2 cups washing soda
- 3 teaspoons tea tree oil optional
Instructions
- Combine the Oxiclean, borax, washing soda, and tea tree oil (if you're using) in a large bowl and stir until well mixed.3 cups Oxiclean Free, 2 1/4 cups borax, 1 1/2 cups washing soda, 3 teaspoons tea tree oil
- Pour the mixture into a 1/2 gallon jar or container to store.
- Use 2-3 tablespoons of laundry detergent per load of diapers and wash as usual.
Notes
If you tried this diaper detergent, I’d love to hear how it turned out for you! Please make sure to come back and leave a comment and a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating.
I use this constantly to wash our cloth diapers! If you have any questions on how to use it, let me know in the comments. I’ll reply to you as soon as I can!
Hi Violet! I have been trying out your detergent, and I am concerned that it’s not working for my cloth diapers or I’m not doing something right. They don’t come out smelling completely fresh, so I have to run them a third time quite often. I am wondering what the reasons would be for the detergent not working. Do you have any ideas? I have even been using more than your recommended amount to get them smelling fresh enough. My usual routine is a prewash (cold water, detergent, quick cycle) and then a main wash (hot water, detergent, extra rinse). Do you have any advice? Thank you so much!! Love your blog!!
Hi Ariana, thanks for reaching out! There are a handful of things that can affect it, and my first guesses would be the hardness of your water and your washing machine/settings. If you have hard water, that can definitely make you need more detergent. I’ve also used this recipe with two different washing machines in different houses and had to experiment with the settings and amounts to figure out what worked best. Using a soak setting during the hot wash (or opening the washer for about 30 minutes after it’s filled up with water) helps a lot with getting the diapers clean. With my current washer, I use a deep rinse setting for both the cold and hot washes. Lately I’ve been doing the first cold wash on the medium soil setting instead of the light setting. I’ve used the light setting at times and it’s worked, but I tend to want to err on the side of extra clean instead of just doing the minimum. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions!
Thanks for this laundry detergent idea. I always feel like washing cloth diapers can be so overly complicated. This looks so simple and I believe I have most of this already!