Domesticity Nouveau

Monday, April 12, 2010

Make Laundry Fun with Magic Cleaning Sprinkles!

I wish that laundry was fun.  It’s not.  Even when you give the laundry soap a cute name, like Magic Cleaning Sprinkles, it is still a lame chore.  It’s not so much the washing and drying, (the machines do most of that tedious process), it’s the folding and putting away.  I have yet to find anything redeeming about the folding and putting away, other than it is what one is suppose to do with their clothing so that others don’t look upon them with shame.  Lack of shame isn’t much of a motivator for me.  If however, the laundry basket spit out quarters like a Vegas slot machine when the clothes were in proper order, I would probably be a laundry fanatic!

A friend of mine likes to joke about how I gave her instructions for making homemade yogurt that started with buying yogurt.  This is another one of those type recipes in that making your own laundry soap starts with buying soap.  I realize that sounds somewhat silly, but like the yogurt, it’s more cost effective to make your own and you know what is going into your finished product.   It only takes a few minutes to whip up a batch of laundry soap and it is so much more wallet friendly than anything you can get at the store on sale.

It is a bit different, however, in that it isn’t laced with a lot of fragrance or chemical fabric conditioners.  This means your clothes will probably feel slightly different than you are used to because the cloth fibers aren’t coated with conditioners that release fragrance for days and days.  Your clothes will just be clean and for some people, that is the goal.  Well, for most people I think the goal of laundry is clean clothes, but I could be wrong.

Magic Cleaning Sprinkles
 
(AKA frugal laundry powder)

1 bar of Fels Naptha
1 1/2 cups Washing Soda
1 1/4 cups Borax
1/2 cup Baking Soda

Grate the bar of Fels Natha, by hand or with your food processor.  In the bowl of your food processor, mix together the grated Fels Naptha with all the other ingredients until it becomes a uniform powder, about 30 seconds to one minute.   Let the mixture rest for a moment so the dust can settle and not hit you in the face when you take the top off.  Use 2 TBSP for your average large load.  A little more or less for extra dirty or smaller loads.

Fabric Softener
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar

If you have one of those blue fabric softener balls, just fill it to the line with white vinegar and drop in as usual.  If you don’t have one of the balls, you can add in the vinegar during the final rinse or any other way you add fabric softener.  And nope, your clothes won’t smell at all like vinegar!  Of course, they also won’t smell like Tahitian Waterfall Meadow Flower Rainy Spring Sunshine Morning Dew, but that can be good!

3 comments:

  1. THANKS SO MUCH! Have used vinegar for a long time...and it is great for those washing diapers...especially if there is any (someday) sunshine to dry them in....ahhh one of my favorite fragrances, real-honest-true sunshine, line-dried laundry (Michelle that makes folding a pleasure - a bit of sunshine)

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  2. Great Blog...my friend Ruby suggested I visit and I love it! Great recipes (I also eat gluten free) and dommestic tips (mostly-stay-home mom of 5 :). I look forward to following you on facebook.

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  3. wow I never thought about doing this before- great idea!

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