Home made Laundry Soap Link

 
http://www.thefrugalshopper.com/articles/detergent.shtml

There are several recipes you can use on this site. Recipe #3 is most like the recipe I use. I don't use Fels Naphtha soap which is recommended on the site, but I do use Octagon. I like the way it rinses clean. Plus it's old-fashioned and versatile. My kids don't really like to use the home-made stuff on their clothes. For some reason it breaks them out and makes them itch. It doesn't seem to bother them on the sheets and towels though, for which I am thankful. I use the home-made stuff for all my clothes and the sheets, towels and rags.

 Laundry - Clean Thoughts!

No matter how you do it, laundry will always take time and money. It just depends on how much time and money you want to spend!

I save money by making my own detergent with a bar of soap (usually Octagon), washing soda and warm water, and adding a bit of commercial detergent. Right now I have several bottles of Whisk on hand that I bought on sale with a coupon thrown in, so I'll add that in. I can make that last a lo-o-o-ng time! I'll add the recipe later, plus links where you can learn more. For fabric softener, get a bottle of white vinegar. Add 1/2 cup to the rinse water for deoderizing and softening. Plus, vinegar kill some germs.

I only tumble dry our sheets and towels. For blankets, beach towels and all other clothing I hang them to dry. We have several clothes lines in our laundry room but things don't really dry quickly in there like I'd hoped unless there's a very good breeze. I love my wooden clothes racks and my umbrella hanging dryer. I use these for socks, underwear and sweaters. Our shirts and pants get hung up on hangars and left to dry on the shower rods and the rail around our stairwell. Our dryer doesn't get used very much now! I wash our cloth rags we use in place of paper towels and hang them up, too.

 My Grandma always said, "What you waste, you'll want for"

I'm sure we all see things wasted on a daily basis. Throwing away good food is just like throwing away money. As much as food costs now, it really is! For an example, I once saw a little girl throw away two perfectly good pieces of bread before her parent picked her up from a sleepover b/c she felt she couldn't eat them before her mom got there. I found the bread in the trash after she left. I got them, dried them out, and fed them to the birds.

At what point do we teach our children that waste hurts? One way our waste as a nation hurts the earth is polluting and by using large parcels of the earth for landfills that are full of toxic waste that aren't even safe to build houses on later. How many things are thrown away each day that could be recycled, repaired, or used by someone else? Our community dump doesn't allow people to take things they could use home. My idea of a perfect "dump" isn't a dump at all, but a drop-off that would allow people to take what they can use home, kind of like a swap-meet, or a free flea market.

Another way that waste hurts is by using natural resources in unwise ways that prevent others from using them wisely. What do we want left for our children and grand-children? Memories of what natural resources used to be? Beautiful wild animals that can only exist in zoos? A world where rainforests and their native inhabitants live only in pictures? Not a happy thing to look forward to, is it? How many of us truly try to cut down on waste each day? Wasted electricity, water, fuel, money, resources... Most of us could be so much wiser with our resources. Food for thought.