Friday, January 20, 2012

7 Quick Takes Friday: Homemade Laundry Soap and THANK YOU!

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Last night when I wrote this mostly depressing post, I was having having one of those pregnant lady moments, those tired mom days, one of those will-he-ever-get-a-job weeks, and it all came tumbling out like that.  It's sometimes kinda stressful loving a baby you've never met and can't see, ya know?  Your brain does crazy things and then Satan is all "Pssssst...you haven't really worried about things in a while.  I can totally help you out.  Because I'm generous like that."  What a jerk.  

Anyway, I am loving all the comments and support and lovely people who read and take the time to comment.  In typical quasi-bipolar fashion, I'm feeling a whole lot better this morning.  So thank you!

(2)
Speaking of comments and lovely readers, I'm really enjoying reading and tweeting the posts you guys shared on my 1Year Bloggiversary entry.  I still have a bunch to read and share, but I promise, I will get to every. single. one!  And I hope some of you have found new bloggy friends.  Good times in internetz land.

(3)



You don't even have to love dogs to love these. Am I right?  So cute.

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Plus: winter is finally here!  After 50 degree days in January in Michigan (true story, all ye skeptics), we woke up to MINUS 18 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT this morning.  Zoinks.

(5)
This week, the kids and I made our very first batch of laundry soap.  We used this recipe but instead of 1/3 bar of Fels Naptha soap for a 2 gallon batch, we used 1/2.  Because my children are disgusting slobs and have the stains to prove it.





I'm about to wash my very first load of laundry with it, but will refrain from telling you how excited I am about trying it out.  Because then you might know how big if a dork I REALLY am and I'll lose what precious cred....

Oh, who am I kidding.  Dorks unite!  Excited laundry washing!

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And lest you think my hard-working children stay on task and do all my household chores for me, I assure you that they got "bored" (as normal children do) and decided to "borrow" the camera (as normal children do)




(7)
Next week, I'll share my how-to on the bedroom redo.  As in, how-to completely redo your bedroom with $250 or less.  Or $0 if you happen to have a gift card from a generous Old Friend.  

Until then, stay toasty folks.  

Or cool, if you're one of my Texas or Florida readers.


7 quick takes sm1 7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 161) 

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32 comments :

  1. I'm a laundry dork too!!! I have been dying to make some homemade laundry soap!

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  2. Stay cool indeed! I woke up sweating last night, and it is going to be 76 here today, and muggy. I can't wait to see the bedroom! good luck!

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  3. My air conditioner is running. I look at your snow pictures and want to cry I want to be living back in four seasons again so so so badly! If we ever manage to retire, hubby's little cabin waits and right now it is under snow, glorious snow. It is also below freezing inside as nobody is there and so nobody has a fire going. I love a dry cold season.

    The south has great people but oh I HATE this climate. Are the dogs Australian shepherds? They look like blue merle which is common in the breed.

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    1. Yes, they're both Australian Shepherds- the bigger one is a blue merle and the smaller one is a red merle.

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  4. I basically use the same recipe, but I don't make it liquid. I just blend it all together (after shredding the fels naphtha) in the food processor and use a tablespoon at a time. It seems to work better than the liquid- but I may have been diluting it too much.

    You can also use a combo of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda for an oxy clean alternative!

    Laundry nerds forever! LOL

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  5. I'm excited to hear how the laundry turns out! I have a few friends who make their own and they keep telling me it's great. I need to give it a try, I think! I keep telling myself I need to work harder to de-chemicalize our home. So let us know how it works for you! :)

    And I'm glad you're feeling better today. We all have those days, that is for sure!

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  6. I use a recipe that is very close to this one. I make five gallons at a time. It works very well, I must say. I don't buy any laundry detergent any more. Once you make your own, you'll never buy again. And I really don't think it takes all that much time or effort to make. After washing your clothes a few times the build up of the other detergents will wash away and you'll notice your clothes feel so much better on your skin.

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    Replies
    1. It didn't take very long at all, really! And even with the kids messing around, they did some measurement math in their heads and learned about motion and heat helping powders dissolve, so I called it a successful project.

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  7. Ah Dweej - you never fail to amuse me. :D

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  8. Happy to report I've already made a great new friend :) Thanks for sharing the posts! They've been awesome so far.

    What else is awesome?

    Those adorable dogs.
    Those adorable kids.
    Homemade Laundry Soap.
    YOU!

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  9. I love dogs, so those pictures were just SO OVERWHELMINGLY CUTE!

    I've made my own laundry detergent a few times now and it seems to work really well! Hope yours does too!

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  10. Be careful with the homemade laundry detergent if you have a septic tank. It can clog it up, or at least that is what I have been told.

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    1. Wow, I'd better do some more research on that then, Sandy. We do have a septic tank but thought the less chemical stuff would actually be better. Off to do a little more research. Thanks!

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    2. Okay, I did some more research, and this recipe is totally septic system safe. More safe than store-bought, that's for sure. So we're good to go! :)

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  11. As always, your perspective on life impresses me. So thankful to hear that you've refocused and are having a better day. We all have them. We do.

    I love the dog photos. Those are the cutest dogs. And that's coming from someone who's not particularly a canine lover.

    Stay warm. We had snow here in Minnesota today, too, AND it's cold. Nearly froze my fingers shoveling and had to come indoors to replace the gloves with mittens.

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  12. Your dogs are pretty cute:) It's like they were made to stand in the snow and have pictures taken of them! Also, yay for snow

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  13. Glad you tried the homemade stuff!! Hope you like it! I always do the powder version because I am lazy ;)
    It's so stinkin' cold here too...ZOINKS!

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  14. OK - so it's colder in your part of Michigan than it is in our part of Alaska! With the wind chill, it is about -20, however....and the wind is HOWLING!

    Your dogs are so cute! Your kids are the hams, I think!

    I have made laundry soap - it works great, but I don't like the grating part...I am going to try my mini chopper to see if that works. It is so much cheaper! So I will try the cheaper chopper to chip up my choap!

    Glad you are feeling better - perspective helps...and I hope Satan minds his own beeswax in the future and leaves my friend Dwija ALONE!

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  15. I am slowly trying to get Brad to give up his cleaning agents. His mother was a cleanaholic, and so is he. So this weekend, I hope to make wool dryer balls so he'll stop using Downy (which I hate).

    Should these work, we'll see.

    When I met him, he didn't recycle. Now he does AND we have two compost bins in the garage. This is a task that can be done. Put down the Tide? Well...that may take a while.

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  16. Your adorable puppies were SO made for the snowy-licious weather! Precious babies/hams. Oh, and the kids too. ;D

    Oh yeah and DUDE, I don't know if you even had the slightest *hint* of a tiniest chance to step on over yesterday, but your timing and mine were weirdly connected - I had a bad day with the guy downstairs too. I posted my first ever I'm-having-a-panic-attack post. Satan hates me. *Seriously* hates me. If I didn't loathe him so much back it would probably scare me! But instead I just try my best to be the best enemy to him I can be.

    And the good news for a fellow semi-quasi-pseudo-wannabe bipolar person? :) I ended the post with a kind of a paradigm shift... and then woke up this morning to find that all was truly well in our world, after all. Phew! Yikes.

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  17. IF I had energy, I'd totally make my own laundry soap too!

    Have a great (cold) weekend!

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  18. I'm a new follower! Thanks for commenting over at my blog. Your story with the house and move is awesome and scary. Very cool!

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  19. I am so curious to try making our own laundry soap! Hmmm...must take the leap and just do it soon!

    P.S. I'm your newest follower! :) Great blog.

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  20. Winter's made it to IL too and I'm not happy about it...

    Jamie
    For Love of Cupcakes

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  21. Such beautiful snow! I'm kind of jealous. A lot.

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  22. Those are some cute dogs (and kids too). So how did that soap turn out? I want to know!!

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  23. Can you give an update on how your homemade laundry detergant worked out? I'm so tempted to try this in an effort to save money, but I have to admit I REALLY love how my Gain makes my laundry smell. Did you add any fragrance to yours?

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    1. I did not add any fragrance. The Fels Naptha soap smells pretty darn good, but the smell doesn't carry over into the clothes as far as I can tell. They just smell CLEAN. My husband is very sensitive to smells (doesn't like synthetic fragrances to interfere with his cooking fragrances) so I always get the "fragrance free" detergents anyway. I wonder if there's a "Gain smell" you can buy :)

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    2. Hi Dwija,

      I've been making dry laundry soap for a while, and just learned something excellent which could help you with wet or dry detergent.

      Instead of grating the soap (which I find tiring and slow), microwave it. It will puff up like a marshmallow and when it cools, it will crumble at your touch.

      It is difficult to add scent to homemade detergent because natural ingredients don't cling to clothes like synthetics do. I would recommend a lavender satchel in drawers for people who want some scent.

      Now that we have not been using commercial products for awhile, it is painful to wash our clothes at my in-laws where they are big fans of scented products.

      Also, we have hard well water, so I have found that a bit of Oxy-clean in every load is vital to keeping clothes looking crisp. Without it, all of our clothes did get dingy. Not sure how this goes for people without so much iron in their water.

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  24. I live in Michigan as well and we recently moved to the country from the city. I make my own glycerin soap and was wondering if I could use this instead of Fels Naptha? I also live on a septic.

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