Laundry Day

This week we have a break from our regular schedule. I have high ambitions of what I will accomplish and will share with you along the way. (smile) Today, I made homemade laundry soap and will share the recipe with pics.

I used 1 bar of Kirk's Castile soap, and 1/3 bar of Fels Bar Naptha (normally, I omit this but I wanted to use it up), 1 cup of washing soda, 1 cup of borax, lavender essential oil, and water.

I grated the soap and added it to 2 quarts of water in a large pan on the stove.



 

Over low heat, I stirred the soap until it was dissolved, added the borax and washing soda and stirred

until it thickened, then added a few drops of lavender essential oil.



 







I filled a 2 1/2 gallon bucket with hot water, poured the mixture in and stirred.

I added some more hot water to fill the bucket and then using a funnel I ladled some into a recycled detergent bottle. It needed stirring once it was cooled and now it is ready to go! This is a very inexpensive, natural, laundry detergent that will last us quite a while! And it smells good!

My precious little helper, Elli.

   

Mali on a mountain of clean clothes needing to be folded and put away.

 

 Finally, all done! A tour of our laundry room/central closet/sewing room:  

I love how big and useful it is! All the clothes get washed, dried, folded and put away in this room.

I feel like I got something accomplished today and the fact that I was blogging about it throughout the day helped motivate me to finish! I washed and dried (rebooted the laundry) in between playdough play with Mali and Elli and then folded and put it all away after they were in bed. It only takes us a few days of not doing laundry for it to pile up ~ and battling Mount Washmore is certainly a challenge around here.