Laundry: Simplified.

Laundry. I've learned to not let it get out of hand. It can get out of hand can't it? Over the years I find this system works the best for me, so I thought I would share it with you. If it can help one person that's good enough for me.
I typically do laundry once a week. But if I have time I'll grab a basket or some sheets during the rest of the week and get it done. It takes me no time at all to get laundry done, I spend a day doing it because I wait for the cycles to complete. But it's not a big deal, I tend to do floors and bathrooms on the same day. Get everything done at once. The rest of the week I do light cleaning of those areas.
There have been seasons where I do one load a day, but this system has worked really well over the years.What works best for you?

Free Friday- Pinterest

 

Some Words.

Hop on Pinterest- check a recipe to see what you need for dinner. Six hours later- still on Pinterest, and the pizza guy is at the door. Fail.

Free Friday- Nail Polish Crazy

I like to pretend I'm organized.
I had this bad boy custom made on Etsy by this seller.
Great communication, easy to work with, and fast shipping! I need another one of these LOL.

This isn't an original idea- been to a nail salon ever? I saw it on Pinterest too. Awesome. Are you on Pinterest? Are you just pinning or using ideas also?

Crayon Art, Heartschooling

Crayon Art. All. Over. Pinterest. Nothing new... but I'm having so much fun with it! I don't have a heat gun. If you have one, you should use it. It would help minimize splatters. I use a hair dryer on high heat setting. 

I just use a hot glue gun and line the crayons up on a canvas. You can do letters for monograms, circles, rainbows, monochromatic themes. Small circles for flowers and draw in stems. Grey and white circles for dandelions.

The picture above I used Modge Podge to adhere the Totoro picture. It was my first time using Modge Podge. I'm glad it was simple. I used blues and purples for that one. 

Below is just a rainbow one. You can see some splatters, but my kids pretty much don't care. These are both hanging up in our school room. Which is a homework room.

Basically all you do is-

1. Glue crayons onto a canvas.

2. Slowly heat them to melt. 

3. Tilt the canvas to move the streams of color where you want them. If you want it to have pools of color, put the canvas on a flat surface.

So easy and so cheap, the canvases were 50% I paid $3 bucks for them. The crayons I got during back to school shopping for 50 cents a box. I had the glue gun, but I remember it being $5 a long time ago.

The girl's school room/homework stations.

 They each have their names over their desks. MIL cut them out and put them up for them. She also put up the shelves. The orange strips to the right of the desk up top are magnetic. So they can put up pictures.

I'm loving having this room. No more mad rush to clear off the dining room table. When their desks were downstairs in the play room they weren't being used. I love that all of their supplies and such are accessible.

Laundry and Dishwasher Soap

I've made both dry and liquid laundry detergent and have been using both for a while now. I have been using powdered longer so, I decided to try liquid and see how I like it. So far so good. There are recipes all over the Internet- if you're on Pinterest just search and a ton will come up. I roughly used the one on the Duggar family site. This is all extremely easy and cheap to do. The girls helped me it's so easy.

Both the borax (I don't remember my price on this but it was not more than $6)  and the washing soda ($3 ish a box) were found at my grocery store in the laundry aisle. The thing is one box of each of these will make multiple batches of these recipes. The Fels-Naptha soap was sent to me, you can use any mild soap. But seriously. Powder or liquid, my detergent is pennies a load. This is very low sud-sing so I haven't had issues with my front loading machine. *Lots of suds does not = clean, this goes for shampoos and body washes also. Not that we're making those... yet. ;)

Use a cup of vinegar (white) in a downy ball or the rinse cycle for a natural fabric softener. I don't do this. I just don't use fabric softener.

Liquid Laundry Soap

I haven't used this concentrated to pre treat a stain, but I am sure opportunity will present itself soon, I'll let you know if it works!

1 bar mild soap- I used Fels Naptha, I hear Ivory and other mild soaps work just fine

1 cup Borax

1 cup washing soda- NOT baking soda

Essential oil- optional

Water

Five gallon bucket

Grate bar of soap- I used the grater on my food processor. You can hand grate if you want. Melt the soap in 4 cups of water in a large pot, over high heat.

Stir until all the soap is melted. Stir in borax and washing soda.

Turn off the heat. Stir until everything is dissolved. Pour the soap into a five gallon bucket. Add water to fill the bucket- it doesn't have to be to the brim but 2-3 inches until the bucket is full is good. Stir. Cover and let set over night- it will turn into a gel consistency. To use this pour a 1:1 ratio of detergent to water into a jug. Add some essential oil- 15-20 drops if you'd like. Give it a good shake each time you use it. I use 1/4 to 1/3 cup in my front loader. Use 1/2 cup in a top loader.
I use an old oil jug, it has a handy measuring cup on top. I also put tape over my label, just in case detergent drips, it will just wipe off.
I made the labels on 4x5inch label sheets. If you want them email me, I'll send them to you free of charge. Not that they are exciting.

 I thought I could just put this soap into some gallon jugs and use less in a wash- more like concentrated detergent. Not so. It got so thick, like jello I couldn't pour it. So I had to coax it out of the jugs and then remelt it to pour into a five gallon bucket. Not fun.

See how concentrated this looks? It was hard to get out of the bottles!

Powdered Laundry Detergent/s

This is just what I have used. And it's been awesome for us. Oxyclean is optional, it hikes up the price but I like it and it works well. Since the rest of the ingredients are so cheap I don't mind it. 

These powder detergents are great for soaking tough stains also. A tablespoon in a hot tub of water and soak.

Sometimes I pour a tablespoon of this into a jar and shake it up with hot water, to dilute before using. Especially if it's a cold wash. I don't think it's necessary. If I'm in a hurry I don't do that at all. This shaking in the jar is what led me to try the liquid detergent.

Recipe 1

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing soda

1/2 cup Oxyclean or powdered color safe bleach (dollar store a this "Sun" brand)

That's it, unless you want to include essential oils- just 10 drops or so. This is perfect for cloth diapers also.

Mix it up and store in a container. Use 1-2 tablespoons per load.

Recipe 2

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing soda

1/2 cup Oxyclean or powdered color safe bleach (dollar store a  "Sun" brand)

1 grated bar of soap like Fels-Naptha

Essential oil- optional

Mix everything until well combined. You can keep stirring to break up the grated soap also, for a finer powder. Or grate the soap on a smaller grater.

NOW.... Dishwasher soap.  I'll admit, I'm not as crazy about the first batch of dish washing soap I did. This is my second batch with the addition of citric acid. I also keep white vinegar in my rinse aid dispenser. My biggest deal with homemade dishwasher detergent is the film it leaves on plastics. So I hoped that by using the citric acid that would eliminate the problem. I haven't used this long enough to RAVE about it. BUT, so far so good!
I linked citric acid from Barry Farm's below. I haven't used their citric acid but I have purchased from them before. You can also use Lemi Shine.

1/2 cup citric acid

1/2 cup kosher salt

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

Mix it all together. Use 1 tablespoon per load. Use vinegar in the rise aid portion of your machine.

This is how my citric acid was labeled. I got it at the Asian market, it wasn't more than $2 if even. 

There are recipes that say you can use a lemon flavored (no sugar added) powdered drink mixes in place of the citric acid. I've never tried that.
***  Update- This recipe is working for me for the most part, I have a ton less powdery film. I put vinegar in the rinse aid portion of the dishwasher, 1 tablespoon of this detergent in one of the cups my detergent goes into and I fill the other side with more vinegar.  I am going to up the citric acid though so I don't have any more film/cloudy stuff on the plastics. I'll update again in a week.
*Update, even with extra Lemi shine I wasn't happy with this recipe. So I wont be making it again.