Going Green(er)

If James were to ever write on the blog (which he doesn't and won't), then he would probably try to convince you I'm the biggest green tree huggin' liberal south of the Mason Dixon line.  True, I am somewhat left of center politically, and, guilty, I do happen to love our environment and try to protect it when I can.  I drive a hybrid for crying out loud!

I've been more and more interested in green living since we got a house, and, now more than ever, I'm always looking for ways to cut out chemicals in our home.  Pinterest algorithms seem to have taken notice, and show me all sorts of green "make your own cleaning product" posts all the time.  I can't help myself - green living can be addicting!  Not to mention that going green and DIY saves a little bit of money.  (Note that it must be both of those things - as just going green and stocking up on Meyer's is, unfortunately, not a money saver.)

Now, I haven't gone totally crazy, but here are two things that I've managed to go all DIY on with pretty good results:  household all purpose cleaner and laundry detergent.

All Purpose Cleaner

I swear we go through a bottle of all purpose cleaner a week. I keep our kitchen in constant use, we have a 1.5 year old "puppy" who still gets a little too excited when guests come over, the lovely GA weather and trees mean the deck outdoor table maintains a pretty gross film, etc etc...a thousand different reasons that we're constantly spraying down something!

I started buying the green Clorex brand after it came out, and it worked just fine.  But, again, we were using SO MUCH of it.  So, I did a little internet digging and found a homemade solution that works really well:

My favorite recipe: 4T white vinegar; 1/2t liquid dish soap; 2t baking soda; 400ml water

That is pretty darn easy. The hardest thing is getting it all in your bottle.  AND, not creating a volcano science experiment in your kitchen.

(To avoid a science experience, I have found that you should mix up the soap, water and vinegar first, then add the baking soda a little at a time.  If you add the baking soda before diluting the vinegar with the water, something that should have taken 2 minutes will take 20 minutes while you wait for all the bubbles to go down.  Yes, I'm speaking from experience...)

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I totally jumped on this bandwagon.  Making your own detergent seems to be all the rage right now, thanks to bloggers and Pinterest.  But, honestly, I do think it really, really works!  Which is why I will stick with it.

This one is less about the cost for me, and more about the chemicals (or lack there of).  Tons of websites have break downs for how cheap this makes each load of laundry, and that is nice.   I hope we'll see some pay off when we start washing all those baby clothes and don't get sucked in to overpriced baby detergent.  So, saving some dough, yes, but (hopefully) saving everyone's skin as well.

My favorite recipe: 1C borax; 1C washing powder (washing soda); 1/4 C (dye, fragrance free) Oxi-clean; 1 bar shredded Ivory soap

Okay, here are some more words of wisdom from someone who managed to screw up this really simple formula from the onset. If the Ace Hardware guy tries to tell you that Arm & Hammer Baking Soda is the same thing as Arm & Hammer Washing Powder/Washing Soda, he is not 100% correct.  There is a way to transform baking soda into washing powder (baking it on 400 for about 45 minutes to 1 hour), but ain't nobody got time for that. After he convinced me to buy a boatload of baking soda, I now have to convert it each time I make detergent until I run out.  (I'm too cheap to throw out $4 worth of baking soda, and washing powder is not easy to find in the city!)

Also, I have used different soaps for this.  Most online recipes mention Fels Naptha, but, personally, I think it smells earthy.  I've also used Dr. Bronner's bar soap in lavender, which smells really good but, obviously, has fragrance and can get pricey.  Ivory soap just smells clean, is very economical, and comes in large quantities.  Works for me!

You can hand grate the soap, or, as I've gratefully discovered, use the food processor.  I think it works best if you shred the soap, and then put the blade in and pulse it with the Borax.  Then mix in the other powders. Then make your husband clean the food processor because that Ivory soap seems to get in ALL the crevices.

This is for powdered laundry detergent, which is preferred by my household archenemy, the front loading washer. (I won't go into details here, but I absolutely hate that smelly, high maintenance thing....)  One scoop works for us.


There you have it:  two homemade green products that our fam (well, at least half of our fam) is pretty jazzed about.  :)