I ran out of laundry detergent the other day and since I don’t run to the store for just ONE thing (because that would be way too much work) I asked my mom if I could just have enough of hers so I could wash the three loads I needed to wash before I went to the store later that week.

My mom has been making her own laundry detergent for a while now, so that is what she gave me.

I LOVED IT!

Our clothes just felt cleaner or something…

While I was at the CPC center last week, Little Bug and Grandma made a new batch of detergent for us to share!

These are all the ingredients needed:

1 Box (4 lbs.) Arm & Hammer Baking Soda

1 Box (55 oz.) Arm & Hammer Super Wash Soda

1 Box of Borax (4 lbs.)

1 tub (3 lbs.) Oxyclean

3 bars of Fels-Naptha Soap

One bar of Irish Spring soap

My mom said she found everything right together at Wal-Mart.

She got a BIG trash bag to put all the ingredients to mix everything in. They did have to transfer everything to a new bag because the first got a hole in it. She said next time she will find a container to mix it in.

To make the homemade laundry detergent follow these (easy) steps:

1.  Pour in 1 Box (4 lbs.) Arm & Hammer Baking Soda.

2.  Pour in 1 Box (55 oz.) Arm & Hammer Super Wash Soda

3.  Pour in 1 Box of Borax (4 lbs.) Not pictured here.
4.  Pour in 1 tub (3 lbs.) Oxyclean

5. Grate 3 bars of Fels-Naptha Soap. Open the wrappers about a week before using so it grates easier. It was too hard for Little Bug to grate this so my mom did most of the work but she let Little Bug try every so often as long as the bar was large.

6. Grate one bar of Irish Spring soap. Not pictured here.
Here she just wanted to play with the soap!

The finished product!

2 tablespoons per load. This is going to last me a LONG time!

 And now for an update on my laundry woes…

I’ve written before how doing laundry for four (instead of three) suddenly made it where I couldn’t have just one “laundry day” and get it done in one day.

Well, it took me some time, but I figured out a way to stay on top of the laundry…

Smaller loads, more frequently.

Instead of doing ALL the laundry on Fridays (pre-Sweet Pea), I now do laundry every other day to every two days at the most. If I let it build up beyond that, it becomes a mountain I have to climb instead of a little mole-hill.

Mole-hills of laundry I can handle.

I usually get it going right after breakfast. Then, because the loads aren’t the size of Mt. Everest, I can usually find 10-15ish minutes to fold atleast a load or two during the 30 minutes Little Bug is watching her show and Sweet Pea is doing IP. I am also way more likely to fold a load right after both girls are down for their naps if is mole-hill size because I know it won’t eat into my “free time”! (Right before I sat down to type this post I put away the load I had folded during Tv time and folded the load that was waiting for me in the dryer…)

If the loads are Mt. Everest size they usually get left in the dryer all day and then we (Dave and I) have a Clothes Folding Party right after the girls have gone to bed. BUT if the loads are mole-hill size I have several 10-15 minutes segments in my day where I can easily fold and put away the smaller loads!

It’s working for me…and that is all that matters!

Oh! Something else that helps out tremendously??

Dave and I have two laundry baskets in our closet.

One is for the whites and the other is for the darks. When I go to put a load to wash, it saves oodles of time to have the laundry already sorted!

Sorting laundry is a painful task! If you can get into the habit of sorting your clothes as you take them off each night, is such a time-saver!

Maybe these tips are “old-news” to some of you out there, but I hope these tricks can help anyone who might be in the “laundry woes” phase like I was a year ago!!

- Elaine