Homemade Laundry Detergent

A while back, I found this pin for DIY detergent. (Isn't Pinterest grand?) It seemed like a cool idea (and I even knew a couple people who had made their own), but it wasn't the right time. We had just moved to GA and only had a small percentage of our things. I knew we'd be buying a house and moving [again] soon, so it wasn't a priority. I could have done it, but I just didn't want to deal with it at the time.

Since then, I've thought about it a lot. The real appeal to me was the money-saving aspect. We spend about $10 every month or two on detergent. Now, that's really not a lot, but it is a reoccurring expense. The idea of making my own detergent for about $20-30 and having enough to last months sounded pretty good to me. (Especially knowing that we'll have another mess-maker in the house in a few months!)

Armed with the list of ingredients, I headed to WalMart. I'll go ahead an admit that I bought everything from their site-to-store option. Apparently our store doesn't carry Zote soap (but they do have Fels Naptha, which is similar), so that was my only option to buy it. Anyway, it was nice to just go in and pick up everything I needed, except for the bucket which Joe had gotten for me beforehand. I didn't take any pictures of the process because you can find it on the website I pinned. They are better pictures than I would have gotten anyway. ;-)

Everything but the Borax!

This stuff is so easy to make, guys. Grate [or microwave] the soap, and mix the baking soda, super washing soda, borax, oxiclean, and purex crystals [optional] all together and you're done. I layered it like the directions suggest, but you could also just stir it all up together if you've got enough strength. I put mine in a 5 gallon bucket (with a lid!), but since it's barely half full I'd say a smaller one would do just as well.

I put some of the mix back into the oxiclean tub, and have been using the scoop that came with it to put the detergent in our washer. I fill the scoop to the first or second line and dump it in. So far, I can tell zero difference in what I used before (ALL, in case you were wondering) and the stuff that I made. If anything, I feel like our clothes smell better than before, and they're just as clean. My bestie said that she had found pieces of soap that didn't dissolve in her washer and/or clothes when she made this. That hasn't been the case for me yet, and I've been using it for a few weeks now. [Side note: This soap doesn't foam, so if you make it, don't freak out. It's working!]

Basically? I'm loving this stuff. It's cheap, easy to make, easy to use, and will last forever. If those aren't good enough reasons to make your own....I don't know what is!

100th Post, Here I come!

I just realized that I'm coming up on my 100th post! =D I think that calls for a celebration, don't you? So, in order to celebrate this joyous occasion I'm thinking of doing a Q & A post/session. We are currently on post number 92, so that leaves 8 more posts. In the meantime, feel free to email me questions you want answers to about me, my hubby, our psycho dog, Army life, etc. I will attempt to answer all of them (unless there are 5 bazillion). So, gets those brains a-workin' and come up with some good questions!

 I am so ready for tomorrow to get here. I dropped Joe off at the base this morning for his "camp out" (as his mom said) for the week. No phone, no email, no nothing until Friday. *insert my pouting face here*But, tomorrow my wonderful, fabulous, awesome sister in law is coming to rescue me! I'm so excited. Oh, and this little girl is going to need me to babysit her for a couple hours while I'm there. =)

Wouldn't you want to babysit this cuteness?! =D

So, for today and the small part of tomorrow that I will be alone in this apartment, I am getting caught up on laundry and finishing some cleaning. Have I mentioned to you that I hate doing laundry? Actually, I don't mind it so much...if the washer/dryer is in my house/apt! I'm not liking this hauling laundry down to the laundry facility and waiting for other people to move their clothes so I can wash my own. *sigh* One day, one day I will have a washer/dryer and never, ever have to worry about this again!

I feel like I might possibly be the only one who cleans like a mad woman when my in-laws come to town. Am I alone? Do you do these things too? For some reason, I feel like they'll all think that I'm some terrible wife if my home isn't immaculately clean and smelling like a bunch of roses. Well, I'm off to switch out laundry...and finish my marathon of Grey's Anatomy. =) Hehehe.

Hope your week got off to a good start {with the exception of daylight savings time...which I completely forgot about}! Don't forget to start emailing me with questions - look to the left under my pic, copy and paste my address and send away!