Washing Soda

As soon as I need to heat up the stove for something else more important (i.e. cookies, bread, roast etc.) I am going to try this baking soda-into-washing soda experiment.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5859235_make-washing-soda.html

Now, there is another site, http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/tipstricks/ht/How-To-Convert-Baking-Soda-To-Washing-Soda.htm

I usually don't trust ehow or about.com, so this truly is an experiement. Both sites vary in the directions, and how do you really know if you baked the soda long enough? It's not like it will change colors or look different. Hmmm . . . .will let you know.

Levi Strauss

Saw on the news today that the Levi Strauss Company is encouraging people to NOT wash their jeans.

(see www.marcgunther.com/2010/11/04/dont-wash-your-jeans/ )

How odd, since I was recently thinking about this, but not to that extreme. I was just wanting the kids to to wear their jeans 2 or 3 times, not just once. If you think that's extreme, check out this guy www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/924787--student-wears-unwashed-jeans-for-15-months .

Just when I was running out of room in my freezer, now I find I could be using it for killing the stink off of jeans? Really? I think I will just Frebreeze them, thank you. And still wash them after 3 wearings, thank you.

30 Bags in 30 Days, cont.

I am not doing so well towards the 30 Bags In 30 Days goal. Plan on spending today working on it tho. Am trying very hard not to touch the kids' stuff. Why is it so easy to toss their stuff and so hard to toss mine? grrrr.....

Like, why am I holding on to a headless wiseman? I am pretty sure his head will not grow back.

30 Bags in 30 days

Saw this on another blog, in the spirit of changing my life for the better this year, I am going to try to get rid of 30 bags of old clothes/stuff/garbage/useless items/etc., in 30 days. And I am not going to get rid of the kids belongings, just MINE. You know, the boxes that haven't been unpacked since our last move (only 7 1/2 years ago), fabric that started a project but didn't get finished, and things like owners manuals for things we don't own anymore (or things that we actually use so we don't need to read the manuals for.) The plan is to either donate it to Salvation Army or it goes into the dumpster. Either/or, it's OUTTA HERE by Feb. 10th. I'll keep track at the right.

Day 3: Laundry Suds

Since I cleaned up the laundry room yesterday, I had room to make the laundry soap today. I found the original recipe at http://www.food.com/ , but have changed it a bit to fit our needs.

Ingredients: 1 bar Fels Naptha Soap
3/4 cup Borax
3/4 cup Arm&Hammer WASHING Soda (not baking soda!) 1. The first part is pretty fun. Put the Fels Naptha bar on a microwavable plate and microwave for 30 second intervals, for about 3 or 4 minutes, making sure the soap doesn't fall off the plate. How can soap fall off the plate you ask? The bar will expand and grow, kind of reminding me of a science experiment gone wrong.

(we think this one looks like Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars")

2. Let the bar soap dry out on the plate for 2 or 3 days. I found it is much easier to crumble after a couple of days. It also acts as a air freshener during this time, so your getting a 2 for 1 deal here!

3.Take the bar soap and crumble it between your fingers, until there are no chunks left. I have tried this in a food chopper before, but it didn't really work out that well.

4. Mix the borax and washing soda in with the crumbled bar soap. Voile` All done. Use 2 Tablespoons per load of laundry. (I have an energy efficient front loader, so maybe you will have to adjust to your washer.)

Statistics: (you will find I'm a cent-nut, I obsess with pennies)

Fels Naptha Soap $1.09 a bar= 1 batch of detergent

Borax $4.49 for a 72 oz. box= 14 batches of detergent

Arm and Hammer Washing Soda $2.79 for a 55 oz. box= 7 batches of detergent

After a lot of calculating (of which I won't bore you with) I figure this costs me about 6.7 cents per load of laundry. I did buy a damaged jug of liquid detergent for $4, marked down from $9.50 (no, didn't have a coupon either, bummer) and that should come out to about 5.7 cents a load., but I am doubtful about the actual price since it is much harder to pour liquid detergent to a precise amount to get the pre-determined loads. Now my next step is to get everyone here to not make so much dirty laundry. I know, fat chance.

Day 2: Clean-up

Decided to work on the laundry room for my second project in saving money/time/energy. Here is a starting picture:

Pretty bad isn't it? But how is cleaning/organizing the laundry room going to save me money?

Re-Hanging the clothes line = being able to line dry more clothes = less dryer usage

I think this will be a big money saver. I read once that anything that heats up is the biggest electric eater of all. (stoves, dryers, electric heaters)

Having more room to make laundry soap more efficiently= less store bought pricey detergent (unless I get one marked down like this damaged one)

Found the fabric and curtains that had been lost in the laundry room chaos, that I will need to use to make curtains (another day's project!) to keep more heat in and less cold out. (that should also work backwards in the warmer months)

Found more clothes/etc. to take to Goodwill for a tax write-off (I try to take at least two bags of stuff every month.)

Ok, I will post a pic when this is all done. Evidentally, a year's worth of mess isn't cleaned up in one hour. Who knew?