Homemade Laundry Detergent from Homemaking911

My mother started making my family's laundry soap back in 2008. We were not sure how it would turn out, but thought we would give it a try. I thought it was odd, but was willing to go along for the adventure and see how it worked. We found that it did not take much time to make, only about fifteen minutes per batch, it cleaned just as well as the name brand detergents, our clothes still smelled good, and it did not cause problems in the high efficiency washing machine.

So we tried it and took pictures of every step to show others how easy it is to do at home and to show you what the mixture looks like at every stage. We originally posted them on her website Homemaking911, you can find the original post here. 

We purchased three ingredients at a total cost of under $11.00. This will make 8 batches of liquid laundry soap.
Soap (You need one bar per batch). We chose Ivory. If you use Fels Naptha, you will use less, about 1/3 of a bar.
Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (Available in the laundry area)
20 Mule Team Borax (Available in the laundry area)

Step One: Shred, chop or shave your soap into small pieces.

Step Two: Measure and start heating water. You will need 6 cups of water heated to melt the soap in a sauce pan. Add the soap and water to the pan.

Step Three: Once the soap is all dissolved, you stir in half a cup of Borax and half a cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda. Stir over the heat until it is all dissolved.

Step Four: Remove from heat and pour into a large bucket. I used a five gallon bucket, but a smaller bucket would have been just fine.

Step Five: Add four cups more of hot water to the bucket and stir until well blended.

Step Six: Add one gallon plus six cups of cold water to the mixture. Mix well. Let sit for 24 hours.

Store it in your old laundry soap bottle or other plastic container for easy pouring.

Ready to use! I used 1/4 of a cup because I have a high efficiency machine. Most would probably use half a cup. It looks like a liquid gel. A few notes from Christina: I love using our homemade laundry soap. I can change the smell of the soap to any scent I like by changing the bar soap I use for a batch. Just a note: if you add powdered Tide to the mixture for the smell, I personally love the smell of Tide, it simply sinks down to the bottom of the mixture but never dissolves. This was a bit of a disappointment, but the laundry soap still turned out great and the last few loads did smell like Tide. Another nice thing to note is that if you want your laundry soap to gel, leave it in an unsealed container overnight. It works best if it is stored in a cool place, but anywhere room temperature works just fine. Sometimes the consistency varies somewhat, some batches are almost slimy, others are more of a gel, while some are more of a liquid. This does not affect the quality of the soap at all. I have had the strangest looking batches, one was bright pink from using a pink bar of soap, and I have never had an issue with the quality of the clothes. The whites washes in the pink batch of soap still turned out as white as ever, much to my relief! Enjoy your homemade laundry soap! If you try it let me know how it worked for you!

Anticrastination with Rita Emmett

I used to have a serious procrastination problem. I would put off not just little things, even the very important things. I cannot tell you how many times I missed out on opportunities to save time and money, make money, and save myself very much stress.

I found this website and signed up for a newsletter which has really helped me to putt off procrastinating. It isn't a miracle cure that magically made me stop procrastinating, but it is very motivating. I do not read it every month but when I am feeling particularly unproductive, I go into the last month's newsletter and read her Anticrastination Tip Sheet. It has really helped me learn not to put things off so much. 

Sign up to get Rita Emmet's Anticrastination Tip Sheet here.

Funny Smell That Won't Go Away?

I love fragrances. Candles and lotions, body wash, I even use Aussie hair spray because it smells good! So when a not-so-nice smell appeared in my second bedroom, I wasn't too happy. It quickly became apparent that Katy probably went potty a little on the futon mattress. Oh the joys of dog ownership!

I aired out the room and mattress for 2 days, and throughly cleaned the futon with a water and vinegar solution. The smell went away for a little while, but reappeared yesterday evening. I decided to try baking soda sprinkled on top the mattress, letting it sit for 30 minutes, scrubbing it in with a scrub brush, then vacuuming away the excess. The baking soda I vacuumed up did absorb some of the smell, so I decided to take no chances. I flipped the mattress over and sprinkled the baking soda again, but left it overnight instead of half an hour.

I am happy to report there are no more funny smells in my apartment! Just to make sure, though, I am putting a old jar with holes in the lid under the futon to absorb any other lingering odor. Thank goodness for baking soda!

Boxes, Dog Training, and Wonderful News!

I am so thrilled. I just got a call from my husband, Jonathan, who is currently in Fort Benning, GA in training with the Army. He might be home within the month! It will be so nice to be able to have him home to share our new apartment with him. It's been very difficult to have him gone, but staying busy is the best thing.
 Right now I am trying to decide how best to organize the house so that hopefully we can keep things in some semblance of order. We had almost no closet space in our old apartment- it's quite a change to now have a walk in closet, or "walking closet" as my little brother David calls it, not to mention a linen closet and laundry room, plus a second bedroom. I almost don't know what to do with so much space!

So this week I hope to go thru the kitchen and label the inside of the cabinet doors with what should go on each shelf. That way my husband can not only find things, but he will be able to put things away where they actually go! At the old apartment we were aways struggling to keep everything orderly, but that's hard when my sense of where things should go is very definite, where my husband is much more flexible. Flexibility is a really good thing, and I love that he is that way, but it was very frustrating to both of us that we could never find everything. I am very excited to think that we'll both be able to use the kitchen and be able to find everything!
I will post pictures when everything is labelled and organized.