Homemade Laundry Detergent

With a family of 8, laundry is an EVERYDAY chore.  I'm talking 2-3 loads EVERY DAY!!  Now,  a moment of honesty - I HATE laundry!!  I don't mind throwing the loads in the washer, or even switching it over to the dryer.  However, folding and putting them away are not on my list of fun things to do (of course, I don't think any household chores are on that list).

Let's do some math now!  The average bottle of detergent that does around 80 loads costs between $10-$15 depending on what kind you buy (of course you can use coupons and B1G1 deals, but I'm just going with the normal/average cost). At my rate of doing laundry, I was buying one of those bottles about every 2 weeks. I would spend around $20.00/month (I did use coupons and looked for B1G1 deals).  

Now,  another moment of honesty, I was a bit leery of using a homemade detergent.  We live in the land of red dirt, and my kids like to get DiRtY!! Oh, did I mention my boys play football, and I'm responsible for cleaning their jerseys?  Yeah,  that can be a job sometimes!!!  So,  I went into this fully expecting to have to go back to my normal detergent.  I am happy to say that NEVER happened!!  I made my first batch on November 16, 2013 ( I only know this because I wrote the date on the top of the bucket, I do NOT have that good of a memory)  and am using the last of it this week.  That is 5 months for a family of 8.

What did it actually cost?  I spent around $27.00 (that included the one time cost of the 5 gallon bucket to store it in).  Not bad, huh?  If you google homemade laundry detergent,  you will find several different combinations.  This is the one I used this first time, and I love it.  

Here are all the ingredients you need.  The step by step instructions with pictures are on the website I linked you to earlier.  Simply put,  using a kitchen grater, grate the bars of zote soap and then mix all the ingredients together in your 5 gallon bucket.  After it is all mixed together, you can scoop out enough to fill up the purex crystals bottle to sit on you washer for use.  The lid for the crystals is what I use to measure the detergent.

I love the detergent and I love the money I save with it!! I will be looking for other things I can make myself around the house to save me money!!!  

Clogged Kitchen Sink :(

We've all been there,  the water in the kitchen sink is draining VERY slow!!  Well,  our latest episode happened last night around 9:30 pm while the boys were finishing up the evening dishes.  We hear, "Mom, the sink is clogged, we can't finish the dishes."  I know, I know, can't you just hear the sadness in their voices?  AWWWWWWWW!!  Well,  I'm not one to keep Draino or Liquid Plumber on hand and no one wanted to run to Wal-Mart to get any, so..............  Hubby started searching the internet and we got to work. 

All we needed was some baking soda, white vinegar, and boiling water.  Fortunately, I had all of those things on hand. 

1.  Take 1 cup of baking soda and pour it down the drain.  We had to do some old school dipping out of standing water in the sink (YUCK) since it said to make sure the baking soda got down in the drain!! 
2.  Then,  pour 2 cups of hot boiling water down the drain.  You may have to use a plunger depending on how clogged your sink is. Ours was pretty bad!  Evidently, our children put mashed potatoes and mac n' cheese down there. BOOOOO!!! How many times have I told them????  We DO NOT have a garbage disposal down there.  Anywhoo, I digress. 
3.  Now, repeat the baking soda using another cup down the drain again. 
4.  This time follow with 1 cup of white vinegar and immediately plug the drain (plug both sides if you have a double sink). The baking soda and vinegar react and bubble.
5.  Once the bubbling settles down,  pour more boiling water down the drain.
6.  Repeat if necessary.

YAY, it worked for us.  And in our effort to have less harmful chemicals and processed items in our home, not to mention the cost difference between baking soda and Draino,  we will continue to use this process to unclog our drains.  I also will be putting 1 cup of baking soda followed by boiling water once a month down all of our drains in hopes of not getting any more clogged ones. I need to mark it on the calendar so I don't forget.