My ongoing quest to replace all of my personal and household cleaning products with homemade versions had led me to making homemade laundry detergent.  This is an important replacement, as store-bought detergents contain many chemicals that are harmful both to the environment and to the user.  Linear alkyl sodium sulfonates is a common surfactant in commercial detergent, and it releases benzene, a powerful greenhouse gas, into the environment during production.  Phenols, which are used in many different types of cleaners, are toxic to the central nervous system, heart, lungs and kidneys even at low levels of exposure, and they biodegrade into even more toxic compounds in the environment.  Check this website for a full list of harmful substances in laundry detergent.

I discovered a recipe for homemade detergent at this site, and I have found it to be very effective.  The recipe is as follows:

1 ¼ cups white vinegar
1 cup baking soda
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
¼ cup liquid castile soap

Combine the dry ingredients first, and then add the vinegar.  Add the castile soap last, mixing to get a thick paste.  Use about ¼ cup per load, slightly more for a very large load.  Borax and washing soda can both be found at the grocery store or drugstore, in the same aisle as other laundry products.