Homemade Laundry Detergent

I had been seeing posts on pinterest on how to make your own laundry detergent- so I decided I needed to try it!

 A few months ago (sometime around thanksgiving), I made my first batch and it has worked pretty well. We use the homemade for clothes, towels and bedding- pretty much everything. We have a front loading HE machine, and after about a month of using the homemade detergent, I noticed water building up in the tray where you put the detergent. I googled, and found out there is an ingredient in store detergent that cleans the lines, so once a week I do our work uniforms with the store bought detergent, and the lines get cleaned out. Since I started that, there has been no water left in the trays! Lines are clean!

The basis of the recipe is from the duggar family website((and I tweaked it a bit)).

You will need:::

Borax

Super Washing Soda

a bar of Fels-Naptha

and a bucket of some sort- that holds about 5 gals

Grate a little more than half of the fels-naptha bar (I used a cheese grater and it worked pretty well).

Put the grated fels-naptha in a pot along with 4 cups of water. Stir until the soap has dissolved.

Fill the bucket with about two gallons of hot water.

Add the dissolved fels naptha.

Add 1 cup of the super washing soda and a half cup of borax to the bucket.

Stir until dissolved.

Add warm water to fill up the bucket. Put a lid on her, and wait til the next morning!

The next morning it should be gelled.

 The easiest way I found to transfer is to stir the top layer, about two inches until its more liquidy((great term, I know)).

Then, fill up a container of somesort- old laundry container, or milk jug about a quarter full of water,

and then add the gelatinous mixture into the rest of the jug. I haven't had any luck using a funnel- so I fill my little jug over the big one, and just laddle the soap into the jug. It gets a bit messy, but everything that doesn't make it's way in the jug, just goes back into the bucket.

You're done! The hands on part only took about 40 minutes. So easy! And so cheap- about 1cent per load!

I normally wait a day to use the detergent that I just put in the jug, because it needs time to gel up again.

Then, shake the jug once or twice before you put it in the washing machine, and voila!!

Enjoy your laundry detergent for months! (my last batch lasted about 4 months) :)

Weight Loss

Two months ago I joined two of my friends Danielle and Danielle in a "Danielle Sandwich" weight-loss competition. One of the Danielle's and I joined Shape-Up Fitness Competition at the gym. I have been less than par on my motevation this week, or actually this month. I need to get back into "shape" for the summer. What does that even mean? The D's and I have decided that  "in-shape" to us, means bathing suit ready. Which I am defnitely far from. I am ready for the summer on the shore, and where there's boats and water, there's bikinis! EEEK!

Sooooo, in order to keep myself on track, I am going to weigh-loss update y'all every week.

This week, I am getting back on the drink-water train. For a while I had been drinking a gal of water every day, but slowly I started drinking less and less. Starting tomorrow (I know, I know- why not start now?, well its almost 5 pm and I don't think there's enuf time for all of that water!) Stay tuned for next week, when I let you know how I did!

10 weeks til June 1st- and a goal of 10 pounds to lose.

Here goes nuthin'!