So, due to the fabulous schedule I work at the CDC (4 day weeks working 10 hours per day) I typically get a 4-day weekend once a month. Loveliness....this happens to be my 4-day weekend!
These weekends are delightful at any time of the year, but they are especially welcome during the summer. I love having a few extra days to read, swim, eat out, and just generally enjoying living easy. However, before I could get to the relaxing part of the weekend, I had to do some chores.
Last night I went to start some laundry and realized I was almost totally out of our homemade laundry detergent. No worries...I was able to mix up a new batch in less than 5 minutes. I know Meredith blogged about making this for the first time back in the winter, but this laundry detergent has truly changed my life! First of all, I love not having to go out and buy detergent all the time, spending $6-$8 each time. Also, think about how much detergent you have to use each time you run the laundry machine...that huge scoop in there is pretty serious!! That's why I was always running out in the past....you use a ginormous amount each time, and if you're like me, there always seems to be laundry that needs to be done.
With the detergent we made, there are only 3 ingredients and you use, get this, ONE TABLESPOON per load. So it truly takes a long time to deplete your supply.
I love this detergent. My stuff comes out so clean. Here was the ultimate test: earlier this spring I washed my car on one of the first nice days of the season. I used a variety of white rags (I only buy white towels, rags, sheets, etc so that I can bleach the living daylights out of them without worrying about ruining color....working with small children everyday trains you to constantly wage war against household germs!) Imagine what the rags looked like after washing away an entire winter's worth of salt and grime from my car...yuck! This detergent made them rags white again...without me adding bleach. If that's not a cleanliness test, I don't know what is!!
Initially, I was afraid I'd miss the scent of my laundry, because I always bought detergents that were heavily fragranced. I still sometimes miss that scent, but I end up getting clothes that are enormously clean and soft without chemicals. So it's a fair trade! Plus, in the future I'm thinking about using a chamomile-scented soap to add to the detergent to give it a scent!
I can't say enough about the softness of my clothes, towels, sheets, etc when they come out of the drier from this detergent. It's like using fabric softener all the time, and I never have to do that anymore. Yet another round of savings!
Here's the recipe again for those of you who forgot it from last winter! (You ARE committing all of these recipes to memory, right?? Haha)
1 cup Borax
1 cup washing soda
1 bar mild soap, grated (I've adjusted this amount in subsequent batches...I wash my laundry in cold water for a variety of reasons, chief among them being energy savings. Sometimes the soap flakes don't fully disintegrate in the cold water like they would in hot water. The same thing would happen when I used regular detergent from the store...I would often see residue after washes. Scaling back the soap flakes still gets my laundry clean, and I see virtually no residue from the cold water! Woo hoo!)
Truly, this takes all of 5 minutes to put together.
The washing soda is the only ingredient that's hard to find. We ended up ordering it from drugstore.com If you are a first-time customer, you get free shipping, so Meredith and I each ordered 2 boxes of the washing soda to stock up. You only use the 1 cup each time, so I think our boxes will last awhile!
So, there you have it...last night I started doing my chores, realized I was out of detergent, and promptly whipped up my own in the kitchen...all within 5 minutes!! If this had been a year ago, I would have had to grumpily march out to Target, buy detergent, THEN start laundry, thus postponing the fun of my "do-nothing" 4-day weekend! Disaster averted!
In Part 2 of this installment, I will discuss a great tip about getting musty smells out of laundry. And trust me, I never thought I'd have any laundry tips, period. This going green thing is really pretty fun...otherwise how could I possibly have a blog series on laundry?? :)
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