Thursday, January 19, 2012

Laundry Detergent..

So I found many recipes for laundry detergent. I had to use one that called for items I had on hand because I didn't want to run out and buy stuff right off. I had some ivory soap, baking soda, empty container, and water. To my amazement I found a recipe using those things. I mixed it up and have been using it for a couple of days now and it works.

The recipe:
1 empty pail that holds over 2 gallons of water
1 bar of ivory soap, grated
2 cups of baking soda
In a large sauce pan melt grated soap with just enough water to cover the soap. Keep the stove on a medium low heat. Stir frequently. Make sure the soap is completely melted.
Add 2 gallons of hot water to the container.
Add melted soap. Stir well!
Add baking soda. Stir well!
You can add essential oils, like tree tea oil. Just stir well.
Allow to cool and use 1/2 cup per load. For larger loads or heavily soiled loads, use 1 cup per load. Stir well before each use.

This one doesn't gel like others do but soap has a tendency to float to the top once it reforms. Its also best to use with warm water when washing. It works well and my clothes and diapers have smelled great after coming out of the dryer.

Welcome to my adventure!

For the past few months, we have been using cloth diapers for our youngest child to save money. I decided they were far cuter, cheaper and easy to make. So I started sewing them. Then that led to cloth wipes.

After joining a few different cloth diapering boards, I realized there was so much more I could do for the benefit of being green and "crunchy", which also leds to saving money!

So the adventure begins!

I am a 27 year old SAHM to two boys, 5 and 1, step mom to two girls,18 and 12, and a boy,15, and have two other children, 8 and 6. I am married to my best friend. He is 41 and works in maintenance full time. I am sure you will be introduced to each of them over time. But this way saves time!

It is my goal to save us as much money as possible and be green. I have tons of recipes for making cleaners and common every day things, patterns to make almost anything. As I try different things I am going to share with you what I did and how it worked. I will also share what it cost to do and what we saved by doing it.

I hope to help everyone I can! Enjoy reading and try some new things with me!