The View from My Deck

...is not about fireworks this weekend :) Instead, it looks like this:

We returned on Saturday from a wonderful week long vacation at a lake in my favorite state, Minnesota.  We had a fabulous time, and enjoyed scenes like this:

right from our deck.  (More about our trip tomorrow!)  Unfortunately, I came home to a broken dryer, and piles and piles of wet, smelly lake laundry.  I knew I couldn't let it sit, so we've been drying on the deck.  Even more unfortunately, it's a holiday weekend so it will be late in the week before the dryer is fixed, and our neighborhood doesn't allow clothes lines.  So we improvised.  Luckily, our laundry is no match for the hot Nebraska sun and heat.  Clothes are dry in no time!

Also, don't forget, our next session of Bible in 90 Days starts on Monday, July 11th.  Follow this link to sign up!  I would love to have you join me!  I am reading through for the 3rd time, and am also serving as a mentor.

Happy 4th of July!  I hope yours is filled with fireworks and fun, instead of laundry like mine!

Home Made Laundry Soap Tutorial

I love to buy things in bulk when I can at Costco. It saves our family LOTS of money each month. By far our biggest expense at Costco was laundry soap. With four very dirty boys, we spent about $30 per month just on laundry detergent.

I started researching alternatives on the internet after I saw Michele Duggar on an episode of "19 Kids and Counting" making her own laundry soap. I was impressed to find that after making my own soap, I could do a load of laundry for about 3 cents a load, giving us a lot of savings!

It ended up being VERY easy to do. The whole process took me about 20 minutes. I have also been extremely impressed with how well it gets out stains. When I have tried other natural laundry detergents, I have been very disappointed with their stain fighting qualities, especially with wash cloths (did I mention dirty boys?!) and food stains.

The Recipe
This is a low sudsing soap, so it can be used in HE machines as well as regular washing machines. You will not see bubbles in the water, but that's okay! It's the ingredients that clean, not the bubbles!

1/3 bar of Fels Naptha soap
1/2 cup of 20 Mule Team Borax
1/2 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (this is NOT baking soda!)
Sweet Orange Essential Oil (optional, if you would like to add a little scent to your soap)
***Note: with the exception of the Essential Oil, these items should be available in the laundry aisle of your local super market. I chose to start with a starter kit from Lehmans.com, because it came with a grater, and a great 4 gallon bucket to store the detergent in.

First, grate your 1/3 bar of Fels Naptha soap using a vegetable grater.

Next, put the grated soap into a pan. Add 6 cups of water, and heat over medium heat until the soap melts. Stir constantly, and do not let the water come to a boil.

Add the washing soda and the borax to the melted soap. Stir until all is dissolved, and then remove from the heat. Be sure to use washing soda, not baking soda. Baking soda will not work. I also chose to add 3/4 cup of the borax, for an extra stain fighting boost.

Pour 4 cups of HOT water into a 4 gallon bucket (the bucket should have a lid). Add the soap mixture and stir well, then add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir again. After the mixture has cooled down, put the lid on the bucket and let it sit overnight.

The soap should turn into a gel overnight. It will look more like an "egg soup" consistency, rather than a traditional gel. At this point you can add essential oil if you would like your soap to be scented. I like Sweet Orange. I used 25 drops for this recipe.

One Batch of Soap will make approximately 2 gallons. Use 1/2 cup per load. The soap should be stirred or shaken before each use. I saved and rinsed out a used liquid detergent bottle, and I fill this up with soap from my bucket as needed. The bottle can easily be shaken before each use, and the cap is exactly a 1/2 cup, so it works perfectly. The recipe can be doubled if you would like, or your family uses a lot of laundry soap per month.

Happy Soap Making!!

Failing at Being Green

In January when I was making New Year's Resolutions, one thing I really wanted to do was try to incorporate a few things into my family's daily life to make us more green. One of the big things I chose was switching to a more concentrated, earth friendly laundry detergent.

I am totally anal about laundry. Don't hit me, but it is my favorite chore to do around the house. I love taking warm clothes out of the dryer, folding them carefully, and putting the loads away. I feel so accomplished when a load is done! I am BIG on the smell of detergent and fabric softener, it has to be noticeable in the clothes days later. I am anal too about my kids smelling good. Okay, so I admit to having a bit of an OCD problem.

Since almost all of my kids clothes also get passed through three boys, I am a stickler about stain removal. I get as many as I can with a pretreater, but with boys, I am ALWAYS missing something. And whoever thought it was a good idea to require the students at Evan's school to wear white polos as part of their uniform was obviously a man who was not in charge of the laundry. I want a detergent that will step in and erase the spots I've missed.

I have tried three different detergents this year that are concentrated and touted as earth friendly. including Melaleuca's MelaPower, All small and mighty, and Seventh Generation. I even tried a friend's reciped for a homemade mix. All of them brought terrible results.

I guess my kids play in the dirt all day long, because the washcloths were the first to bite the dust. I watched in horror as they all turned a sickly gray after trying to tackle the dirt of three boys in our daily battle to keep the kids clean and presentable. Next, I started to notice set in stains-the BANE of my existence!!! Then, the whites load, which includes that most stubborn of male garments, the undershirt, turned gray, even with bleach. What is it about mens armpits that can cause such stains?!!!

So this weekend, I gave up. I threw out undershirts and washcloths damaged beyond repair, and with a relish, I went to the store and bought my favorite liquid Tide, Bounce dryer sheets, and Downy fabric softener (yes, I use both dryer sheets AND liquid softener! Like I said- OCD.) I threw in a load, and when it came out of the dryer, I will admit to you I stood there and sniffed for 5 whole minutes. My clothes and my family smell and look great again.

So, I guess I am a failure at green laundry. Have any of you ever tried this? Any success?