Category Archives: Cleaning

Homemade Laundry Detergent

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I have been wanting to make my own laundry detergent for a while but every recipe I found involved grating soap or putting everything in a blender. Yeah, I realize it’s just soap but I’m a little paranoid about not getting all the hard bits of caked on soapiness off when I go to grate my favorite cheese! Tainted cheese! Say it ain’t so!

But right when I wasn’t looking for it, I found it. It’s the best! Super easy, super cheap and no grating or blending required. Check out the recipe right here! It is from the blog Bonzai Aphrodite which, by the way, you should check out! I love the blog! The blogger, Sayward, is totally devoted to finding ways to live a low/no impact life. And she just had a baby! Congratulations!

I just made a double batch of the detergent because I liked it so much. As for the liquid soap in the recipe I used the almond scented Dr. Bronner’s pure castile soap. It has a very nice subtle scent that seems to fade from the clothing pretty quickly. Personally I like that but I’m sure you could add some essential oil in the mixture to pep it up if you want.

ingredients

First of all, have all your ingredients ready to go! I love to bake and used that knowledge in my preparation which really helped out. I combined all of my dry ingredients first and made sure to get out all the lumps. I then slowly added the dry ingredients to the vinegar (constantly stirring) and then added the soap last.

stage 1

At first it will look kinda like cream of wheat. Don’t stop stirring!

stage 2

Then it will begin to stiffen and look like mashed potatoes. You will notice that the mixture is getting pretty hot. Don’t worry, that’s normal. Keep mixing! (I know it’s getting difficult but don’t stop or you will end up with a concrete block!)

stage 3

Finally, it will look like crumbled feta. As long as you don’t have any big chunks left, you can stop stirring. Put an air tight lid on and stick it next to your washer for use.

Stain Solutions

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Yet another free item of clothing I took from the clothing swap was the white jacket below. Of course I realized after taking it home that it had a few stains on it. Gah! what to do? I am usually the stain remover queen! But I always make sure to get to the stains before they are washed and (most importantly) dried. The dryer is the downfall of stain removal! It’s evil I tell you!

But there is one trick that my Mom learned from an old lady that owned this awesome frame and antiques shop by our house. We only used the following method on cotton and rayon. I have no idea what this would do to silk or wool! So be warned. You will need a large plastic tub, powdered dishwasher detergent, cold water and a lot of time. Make sure that you get the powdered detergent without the blue bits. Very important! No blue bits! Unless you want blue dots on your heirloom antique white tablecloth… but I don’t think you do.

First make sure you have enough water in the bucket to completely cover the stained item. Before you add the clothing sprinkle about two tablespoons of the detergent into the water and agitate with your hand to mix. Then add the piece of clothing and make sure that it is fully saturated with the soapy water. Now comes the time for patience! For the next four days you want to move the clothing around and check on the stains. On the fourth day make a new mixture of soapy water and dump the old water out. You might have to do this for weeks. Seriously. But don’t give up! Keep checking it every day and changing out the water.

If that doesn’t work or takes too much time (as is the case with me) then it is time to get creative! Sure you could cut t up and turn it into something else. You could buy a “Kiss me I’m Greek” patch and cover up the stain. Or you could whip out your needle and embroidery thread (wiggling eyebrows up and down)! You see what I’m getting at?

Voila! A beautiful flower where there was once an ugly stain. I have a feeling that this jacket will be filled with embroidery in a few years time. Not because of me! I’m quite neat, my boyfriend however… well, lucky for him I’m crafty.

Stained jacketBefore

Embroidered jacketAfter

Downsizing

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empty-closet

No, I’m not talking about the economy and the unemployment rate. I’m talking about clothes and stuff. Yeah you know, all that stuff that builds up in your house. In the drawers and the back of your closet, under the bed and in the cabinets. In the past two years I have moved twice and still have fully unpacked boxes from the first move. I have not touched nor thought about the contents of these boxes in two years! Do I really need this stuff? My rational mind says ”NO” but my pack-rat, sentimental side whispers “open the boxes, you might need that stuff one day. Hoard, hoard, hoard”. It’s a battle I have been fighting all my life. I blame it on my parents. Damn their collections! Green glass, door knobs, vintage gloves, matchbooks, coins (oh my god the coins!). I shouldn’t be too harsh I mean my parents aren’t as bad as the people on Clean House! Yikes!

But how do we release our selves from the clutter? I have been on a crusade for the past few months to get rid of everything I do not need. Every few weeks I go through my clothes and drawers and take out more and more things. I am trying to see just how much I can get away with. Just a few days ago I met with two lovely ladies (I will post about that later!) and one of them told me about this amazing website the Uniform Project. I’m not really sure how I have not heard about this before! It’s awesome and inspiring! One young lady has challenged herself to wear one dress for 365 days! It is also a fundraiser for the Akanksha Foundation. This has really challenged my thinking about downsizing my own wardrobe. I am organizing a clothing swap at work in two weeks. So until then I will be purging my closet of all unwanted, unworn, un-mended clothing. I will post the results in three weeks…

(Image above: Closet Organizers )

Stripping Paint Without Chemicals

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Painted Stairs

It will be a year in August that I bought my house and I feel like I have not done anything to it! All my grand plans went out the window when winter came along and I began my hibernation. I am really going to have to move some place warmer if I want to accomplish things in the winter! But I digress. I finally had a free weekend so I decided to start my fight against the layers of paint covering my 100+ year old wood stairs. When I moved in they had black rubber treads glued on! Yuck!

After searching around for a non-chemical stripper and finding pretty much nothing I decided to start scrapping and see how it went. There are low VOC strippers out there but over the past few years i have developed a lovely (not so) little case of asthma so I didn’t really want to risk it plus they got horrible reviews anyway! Above is how the stairs looked after ripping off the offensive elementary school style rubber treads. Below is during the scrapping process. It’s coming along nicely but I am starting to regret doing this in summer in an un-air conditioned house… sweat anyone!?

During Scraping

Banana Peel Shoe Polish

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Banana Peel Shoe Polish

Did you know that most states require you to dispose of shoe polish as a hazardous waste? Your average shoe polish is composed of 65-77% volatile substances and must be used in a well ventilated area preferably while wearing gloves. But why bother with all those chemicals when a simple banana peel and old stockings will do the job!

I first saw this tip on Tree Hugger. First brush off all loose dirt with a soft brush or cloth. Next rub the inside of a banana peel onto your shoe (do not use on nubuck or suede). Then simply buff with a clean, soft cloth or an old stocking. Finally, compare to the un-shined shoe and marvel at your work! I also love this trick because you can use it on any color shoe. No more searching for that certain shade of red.