Saturday Blog Holler - Mimi's House

Saturday Blog Holler

Welcome to my first Saturday Blog Holler, featuring Mimi's House.

Mimi's House is ran by a local homeschooling mother of 3 that I meet a few months ago during a field trip. Misty writes about homeschooling, motherhood, homemaking and Christian living. Her blog decapitates her journey in learning and what a true treasure it is. She shares post about budgeting, parenting, homemaking, as well as what is going on in her classroom. 

Check out a recent post below from Mimi's House and then hop on over to check out her blog and follow along.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

So, I have been saying for awhile now that I was going to make my own laundry detergent but kept making up excuses as to why I just didn't have the time. I kept getting coupons to stack with sales on detergent and fabric softener and just couldn't justify making my own. However, this week I quit my job (yay!) and have went into full time mommy mode! With this thought I know that I need to cut costs somewhere so I finally did it.

The recipe I got was from a friend at church. This is NOT my recipe. I am sure she got it from a friend, who got it from a friend and the list goes on. So there is my disclaimer for this post.

Here is the recipe as I received it:

Laundry Detergent

(1) 76 ounce boxBorax 20 Muleteem

(1) 55 ounce box Arm&Hammer Washing Soda

(4) 1 pound boxes of baking soda

(1) 29 ounce box Purex Color Safe Bleach-powder form

(1)28 ounce container of PurexCrystalsLaundry enhancer/fabric softener

(3) Bars FelsNaptha Heavy Duty Laundry Soap, grated with cheese grater

Instructions:

· Dump first 5 ingredients into large trash bag (double bagged). *All ingredients are dry except FelsNaptha bars.

· Use a cheese grater to grate soap finely into the trash bag.

·         Tie trash bags securely and shake to mix ingredients.

Use 2 Tablespoons per load. There is already fabric softener in it, so no need to add any to the wash. If you have sensitive skin, you may omit the Purex Crystals Laundry enhancer/fabric softenercompletely. You will still achieve the same cleansing effects from the detergent.

The detergent stores nicely in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid (or you could leave the majority of it in the trash bag and fill the Purex Crystalsbottle for easy use-the cap on it has lines to measure use in Tbs.)

It does not make many suds because there are not all the ‘sudsing’ fillers that come in the pre-mixed detergents. Also, the reason you use less of this detergent is because it does not have all the fillers.

The ingredients

Breakdown of cost:

Borax: $3.38
Arm & Hammer Washing Soda: $3.24
4 lbs of Baking Soda: $2.08
Purex Color Safe Bleach: $2.97 ( I used oxi-clean that I had on hand but this price was quoted by friend who made it with me)
Purex Crystals Fabric Softner $4.76
3-4 bars of Fels Naptha Laundry Soap $.97 a piece ( I bought 4, recipe calls for 3 I only used the 3) $2.97
Total Cost $16.37!!

Now I did also have to buy a few things that I will use again.
5 gallon bucket with lid $4.14
Cheese Grater $2.97

The recipe calls for garbage bags that you use to mix the ingredients. We did this but when I do it again I don't think I will use them. If I do I will only use one. It was easier to mix when done by dumping contents in bucket putting the lid on and shaking it that way.




Finished Product

Rumor has it that the detergent can last up to an entire year, but I am hoping that my family of 5 can get it to last about 6 mos. I will let you know. Regardless it is a steal and people who have used it tell me it works better than any other detergent they have ever used.


I did take the empty Purex Crystal bottle and fill it with my detergent. I put 2 tablespoons in and marked the lid so I know where to fill it when I use it.

As of publishing time I have washed 2 loads and no problems! My clothes smell great. Also, I do have a top load HE washer. All the ingredients from what I saw say they are safe to use in HE machines. I am not sure about front loading machines but this worked fine in my top loader. 


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