Hippie

Luke calls me a Hippie.  I think it is cute, but do realize that he is totally mocking me :).  Since being a stay at home mommy I have realized that there are a lot of things I do and buy out of convenience that I can make on my own for a lot less the what I pay for in the stores.  There are a number of things I have done and are in the process of figuring out and will share them, but the first thing is laundry detergent.  (Oh, and may I add that I was baking brownies at the same time I was making laundry detergent!  Yup, that's right.  Although all I had to do was make sure they were not burning in the oven, but multitasking all the same).

I pay about $8-$12 on laundry detergent (The cheap whatever is on sale and gets me the most loads of laundry kind) every other month.  This may not seem like a lot of money, but on our budget that is 3-4 meals, or 1/4 tank of gas, or wipes, or Starbucks coffee (priorities right?).  So anyway, I embarked on the adventure of making my own laundry detergent and it works fabulously!  I am so excited.  Here is what I did:

Calculations:

I paid less then $10.00 for the following supplies:
10pk of Ivory soap
Borax
Washing Soda
Oxy Clean (not needed, but I like an extra boost for those pesky stains)

These supplies will make about 20 gallons of laundry detergent and I can do about 30-40 loads per gallon!  So that makes an average of 700 loads of laundry for less then $10 right?!?1  Don't hold me to that yet.  I have just started and haven't completed my experiment yet, but will keep you updated on that :). 

Instructions:

1. Grate 1 bar of soap (equals about 2 cups)

2. Bring 1 quart of water to a boil and add soap to the water dissolving it completely.

3. Pour soap mixture into a pail and add 2 cups of Borax and 2 cups of washing soda.  Stir until dissolved.  (I just added them to the pot and then poured it into the container).  
4. Add 2 gallons of water to the container and mix well.
5. Cover container and use 1/4 cup with each load remembering to stir/shake detergent before each use. 


This mixture will gel and become liquid detergent.  There are TONS of recipes for laundry detergents and mostly powdered.  I prefer liquid because I think it cleans and dissolves better.

And here is Grace having a snack while Mommy makes detergent.  She was not happy that I wouldn't let her "cook" with me this time.  Too many chemicals and hot stuff.....she quickly got over it once the gold fish came out :)