Laundry Week Comes to an End

For the past week, I've focused on doing laundry responsibly. First, I didn't put a load of laundry in the washer unless I knew I could put it into the dryer when it was done.  Thanks to an article on My Child's View, I also did not do laundry if I knew I would be sleeping or gone while it dried. This did make it more difficult since I'm out of the house so much during the week, but for safety, it makes sense.  This week, I didn't have to re-wash anything!

Next, when I ran out of soap, I made my own eco-friendly and frugal soap from a recipe I found online. I was skeptical at first, but I'm totally in love with our new laundry soap!  Also, I have been finding ways to use some of the supplies I bought around the house, reducing our consumption of chemical cleaners!

I also found a great tip for cutting drying time.  Again, I was skeptical but tried to stay open-minded. I now have a funky dyed towel that sits on top of my dryer, waiting to be thrown into every load.  It's been a lifesaver given my new rules on drying when I'm not able to keep an eye on the dryer.

I will admit that I wasn't the best about folding this week.  I was so focused on getting the laundry washed and dried that I would pile everything on my bed and then into a basket when my good intentions of folding after the kids were in bed fell through.  The good news is that even that turned into a positive! 

Most nights, my husband works late and I am sleeping by the time he gets home.  Last night, after we enjoyed "The Blind Side" for an in-home date night, I asked if he would help me.  I wasn't expecting him to since there are some things that he needed to take care of but he did.  As silly as it sounds, we had some great reconnecting over that mountain of dry clothes.

All in all, I mark this week a success!  I'm going to continue working on making this change permanent, and in the coming week, I am going to add home cooking every night to my list.

Cut Drying Time

As much as I would love to have a sparkly new dryer with all the bells and whistles, it's not in the budget right now.  That means I'm stuck using my old dryer, which normally takes at least two cycles to dry clothes.

The other night, I read an article that suggested putting a dry towel in with the wet laundry as a way to cut drying time.  I honestly didn't think this would work, after all, it's one dry towel. 

Reluctantly, I found a nice, fluffy towel and threw it in with Bubs' diapers.  These always take about a cycle and a half to dry, even using the "sensor dry" setting.  Usually, the prefolds and pocket outers are dry at the end of the cycle, but the fitteds and pocket inserts are still damp. Much to my surprise, with one dryer cycle that was shorter than it usually is, every diaper in the load was dry!

Figuring this wasn't enough of a challenge for that hard working towel, I washed a load of nothing but jeans.  The nemesis of my dryer, my plus-sized jeans along with hubby's cargo jeans with all of their extra pockets.  ONE CYCLE!!! 

Looks like I can no longer use my excessively long drying time as an excuse for not doing laundry!  It also means that I won't have musty clothes if I don't remember to reset the dryer because I no longer have to reset it!

Homemade Laundry Detergent Experiment

Not only did I get two loads of laundry done last night and came home this afternoon to an empty washer (this is big for me), I remembered my list and picked up supplies to make my own homemade laundry detergent.  The original recipe can be found here, but I did tweak it based on different articles I read online.

My recipe:

• 1/2 cup Borax
• 1/2 cup Washing Soda (instead of baking soda, it's supposed to work better)
• 1 bar of Dr Bronner's Magic Soap (I used the Tea Tree Orange)

The first mistake I made was using the big tub I'm used to pouring powder detergent into.  I had the image in my head that I was making a huge concoction when this is the end result:

I grated the bar of soap using the medium set of holes on a box grater.  I did swing by the dollar store and pick up a grater that will only be used for soap just to be safe.  Once that was done, all that was left to do was add the washing soda and Borax.  Before using, I gave the container a shake (the small container) to make sure nothing had separated and settled.

I have issues with measuring spoons, so I grabbed a spare 1/4 cup scoop and filled it less than half way.  The original recipe calls for 1-2 tablespoons depending on the size of the load and the grunge factor.  I was sure it wasn't going to work, but this is trial and error, right?

This is what happens when a 4 year old Bug tries to do a "science project" while mom is taking care of her brother.  1 cup of water mixed with 2 kool-aid packets, promptly spilled on the floor and wiped up by taking her pants off to clean the floor.  And then hidden so mom won't get mad.  With more than a little doubt, I threw these into the wash to test my homemade laundry soap.  This is what came out:

I couldn't remember exactly where the stain was, but I know it was all over one side of the pants and the waistband.  As you can see, it came out!  This is definitely going to be my detergent from now on!  I'm going to keep track of how many loads I get out of this batch in my sidebar and I will figure out the cost per load when everything is gone.

Paid so far:

Borax: 3.19

Washing Soda: 2.49

Dr. Bronner's soap: 3.29

I barely touched the first two ingredients, so it'll be a while before I need them again. So far, I've spent 8.97.  That's less than I would have spent buying detergent for a few weeks and I have supplies left over!  I'm going to like this experiment!

Green Laundry?

So, I'm over half way into my week of focusing on laundry.  The good news is I've only forgotten one load in the washer.  The bad news?  Rather than forget laundry in the washer, I've apparently decided to ignore its existence.

That's not entirely true and I have a good excuse reason for not doing laundry.  I'm out of soap and have procrastinated on finding a better option that won't make my husband break out or make the checkbook cry!

If only I had done a search sooner, maybe I wouldn't be trying to find a solution in a hurry because I'm out of clean pants for work tomorrow morning!  The first site I found may become a new best friend.  They have a fairly simple, straight forward recipe for homemade laundry detergent!  I am going to try this tonight and pray that my clothes come out clean!

If anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them!  Just remember, I'm trying to save money while being more conscious of my decisions.  I don't claim to be an expert, in fact, I'm the exact opposite.