Our first step.

One other thing about me...I breastfeed. A LOT. As much as any other nursing Momma...but a lot regardless. So I have a lot of idle time with my hands. Before I have someone tell me I should be spending that time bonding with baby let me tell you; There is only so much cooing you can do with a nursing baby before they fall asleep on you. Not to mention my little one will not eat if you talk to her (a fact I spend a lot of my day explaining to my four year old who insists on playing with her during breakfast, lunch and dinner and all the meals in between.) So anyway...a lot of free time. With that free time I started browsing through blogs and finding so much information about how other moms thrive at home. I was hooked...I am hooked is more accurate. And the first idea that finally made its way off my pinterest board was homemade fabric softener! I love it...its awesome. Best part is its not a difficult recipe to remember or cook or store. Its vinegar! That's it plain and simple distilled white vinegar. Just stick it right in your softener dispenser. You can leave it in its original container or put it in a cute little decorated one. But either way. Its easy. So that's where we started. I walked over to my neighbors (who happens to be my Mommom) and told her my big plan to save $5 a month on fabric softener and she gave me five little books full of homemade recipes. One was nothing but uses for vinegar. I started thinking why do I buy anything but this stuff...clearly vinegar is a one stop shop for all your household needs. That's where I actually thought my husband was going to look at me like I was crazy. Vinegar does stink after all. But he didn't. He just let me do it. And he has let me keep going ever since. But I know one day I'm going to get that look. The one that says "that's enough crazy lady." And I'm trying to avoid that; so I'm staying away from homemade toothpaste. ;)

Vinegar actually is a great rinse agent. It helps keep fabric soft and keeps static out AND (here is what sold me on it) it takes that mildew smell out of your towels! Does anyone else have that issue where u go two, okay maybe four or five, days where u choose not to do your load of towels and they stink? Or how about the load of clothes you stick in the washer when your feeling energized in the morning and then the day actually starts and you forget all about those clothes, then day next morning comes along with all that energy just to find you never switched the load over and now they stink and you have to do it all over again? Then your fabric softener you get from the store just masks the smell because as soon as you get them wet again after your refreshing shower they stink just like they did before you rewashed them. Yeah well that happened to me a lot. And vinegar gets that smell out for good. Not only that but it takes the buildup off your towels and makes them more absorbent. Now there are lots of different fabric softener recipes out there most of them include vinegar, hair conditioner and essential oils. What I found online is about a 50/50 opinion on whether or not the hair conditioner and essential oils help. Most people say they can't smell anything different which is the purpose of hair conditioner and essential oils. So for me I stick to the simple one ingredient recipe. I don't know about you but complicated doesn't fit in my house. You also cannot beat the price of vinegar compared to fabric softener. I actually go to Sams Club and buy the big 2 gallon pack to save even more. What do you think?

Home made laundry soap, yes or no?

Let me start by saying who knows what is good for cloth diapers. More accurately I'm starting to think just about anything is good for cloth diapers. It depends who you are and which way to wind blows on Tuesday.

I have read tons of girls discussing how homemade laundry detergent works just fine for their diapers. All while 10x more girls say that could never clean diapers properly (not to mention homemade detergent has the "no, no" ingredients for diapers). These ladies believe you must always use special cloth diaper safe detergent to avoid the dreaded buildup issues. Then you have the Tide believers. These gals are the hard core tide fans that disagree with pretty much everything the cloth diaper detergent lovers say. Its like entertainment for these girls to mock any other beliefs. It gets a little annoying to listen to. Yet, as I read the things these girls have to say they make sense. So I stay on the page...for now. I just bought my first box of tide powder...although the girls say you can use any mainstream brand without fabric softeners added.

So anyway, I'm more of a try it myself kind of gal and so far they seem clean. Although I'm not sure I could tell if they smelled like pee with the overpowering scent of tide. I previously used bumgenius powdered detergent and had no problems but I thought the price of tide looked a little more appealing. I did start out using my homemade detergent with Jordan Essentials soap, borax and washing soda. Also, no problems. The only problem I've encountered with detergent is the "cloth diaper safe homemade detergent" that doesn't include soap but replaces it with oxiclean. That one didn't even get the dried food off of my baby's bib. Needless to say, I didn't even try the diapers. Eww.

So here is my suggestion. Start whenever you want. If you have a problem then be open minded in switching up your routine. Its not gospel... Its other people's opinion. Feel free to make your own.

Simple homemade laundry detergent

Well after the switch to homemade and natural fabric softener it only made sense to stop wasting money and make my own laundry soap too. So I started searching online and found that every single recipe had the same main ingredients...

1) a bar of soap
2) 1 cup of borax
3) 1 cup of washing soda

Some recipes also call for essential oils, water, glycerin and/or downy.
Some say fels naptha, ivory, zote or homemade for the bar of soap.

Here is what I do from a mix of a lot of different sites and a little of my own:

You will need...

1)1 bar of Jordan Essentials Lavendar and Eucalyptus scent soap...this has been discontinued from their fall catalog, so for my next batch I will use their unscented pure glycerin soap with their lavendar essential oil. (I am a consultant with Jordan Essentials and it is the only products I buy that I dont make myself. I trust the brand to be safe for my family and I know everything that is in it.) I can't say the same for the other soaps suggested. PLUS this saves me the step of adding glycerin.

2) 1 cup borax

3) 1 cup arm and hammer washing soda

4) 3 gallons of water

5) funnel

6) long spoon

7) 3x 1-gallon jugs (these could be old laundry detergent bottles or milk jugs or cute store bought gallon jugs or my favorite empty gallon vinegar bottles...because lets face it I use a lot of vinegar for household cleaning and have a lot of extra jugs)

8) large pot that holds at least 10 cups of water

I do not add downy for obvious reasons...I'm going all natural and INEXPENSIVE...seems silly to "make my own" and still buy brand name as an ingredient, right?

So here is the process I do...

Grated up the bar of soap with a cheese grater...my soap is very creamy so it doesn't get powdery like some recipes describe. That is fine...you are going to melt it in water anyway. Once it is grated you put it in 6 cups of boiling water in a large pot on the stove. Boil on a low simmer for 15 minutes so that it is blended well. Remove from heat and add the borax and washing soda. Stir 10 minutes...make sure u don't feel anymore grittyness on the bottom of the pot. Pour two cups of soap mix into each gallon jug...if you choose to you can use half gallon jugs since they are more manageable.  Just use 1 cup per each 1/2 gallon. Fill the rest of the jug with water and allow to rest 4 hours. After four hours shake very well to remix everything and let sit 20 more hours. Its that easy. If you go a while between loads you may find you need to shake it up a bit sometimes so that it flows out like a thick laundry soap. It should not be chunky or watery.

For a different scent I recommend using Jordan Essentials orange essential oil.

My very first blog!

A little about me...I'm a 25 yr old Momma of two beautiful girls and wife to the best man I've ever known. We've been married for 5 years and together since highschool. (No, we weren't highschool sweethearts, we just happened to go on a date the week before I graduated and have been together ever since). I am a temporarily retired dental assistant and loved my job....well loved my work. I'll just put it that way.

I became a SAHM in March of this year. My husband and I just had our second daughter and, like alot of families lately, after crunching the numbers it was ideal for me to stay home full time. We decided that we could make changes in our home to save us money and I could in turn save us the expenses of putting two kids in daycare. We cut it close every month but I think it is worth the sacrifices to stay home with my girls.

Of course, the point of this blog is to share what I have learned....and I don't JUST mean the recipes I'm learning for laundry soap and dish detergents. I'm talking about what I'm learning about this "sacrifice." Because to me....its not been a sacrifice at all. (Im actually having fun with it.) In theory, it sounds like its going to be a big change and I'm afraid one of these days I'm going to come up with another "alteration" and my husband is going to tell me I have went off the deep end. After all, when it was just us we spent our money on whatever we wanted and made enough trash for three families. And now we are making household cleaners and using cloth diapers and cloth napkins and recycle everything. But anyhow, like i said....it doesnt feel like sacrifice. I love it...I feel more like a Mom; a homemaker. I'm not as green as I'd like to be but we are getting there. This blog will be my journey, and hopefully your journey too, to making our world a happier, healthier place all while being quite thrifty...

and being thriftee is pretty niftee!