Thursday, February 2, 2012

A new start, again...



Here I sit. Trying to get the motivation to go full force on this world of blogging. It's been a bumpy road but I figure as long as I keep trying, I may actually get somewhere with this.


There's a lot to be blogged about, that's for sure! So much, in fact, that I don't want to lose the magic by posting it all at once so I'm going to try and post a few times over the next week or so until I get caught up.


Let's start with the smaller things in life...


Those of you who have known me for a long time know that I'm a bit of a hippie deep down. I am deeply concerned with the health and well being of animals and our planet. In an attempt to cut down on what I throw in the landfills and pour into our water system, I'm giving it a go at home made laundry soap. I recently found a recipe on a blog that I follow (http://www.raisingolives.com/) that allows me to do just that.



I scored some pickle buckets at a local burger joint for a mere $2.50 each and got to work!





The recpie is quite simple really.



1 bar of soap (grated)

2 cups baking soda

2 gallons HOT water


Start by melting your grated soap in a pan with a touch of water, once melted add to bucket containing 2 gallons of hot water. Mix well. Once mixed, stir in baking soda. Allow to cool and use! 1/2 cup for 'normal' loads, 1 cup for 'heavily soiled' loads.



From what I read on the blog, the solution should gel up to the consistancy of liquid laundry soap. However, I have also read that sometimes it seems to separate and stays pretty thin. (This happened to me this first time) But as I understand you stir it well and use the regular measures. This is what I'm doing and it seems to be working great! I've used it on clothes, towels and even dog bedding.



I also had my girls help me with it. They like the idea of keeping multiple plastic bottles out of our landfills and had fun stirring the solution!








Try it out and let me know what you think!