Laundry, laundry, dishes, oh more laundry!

Every Monday morning laundry sounds more like a curse word than a normal chore we all do. I haven't been able to figure out how or why we can dirty so much laundry in a week and that is with me doing all of our laundry on Monday and finishing up a little bit on Tuesday. Then on Friday I will do a couple loads to make sure we have what we need for the weekend. Laundry and dishes, they never end and I think I have dirt fairies that come through when I'm not looking and dirty extra glasses and add grass stains to clothes that I know my boys have not worn yet that week. I don't even have socks go missing (although now that I have admitted that they will), I just have something that multiplies laundry for me.

Last week at Relief Society we talked about stretching our budget. There were so many good and helpful hints. Our Relief Society President must have spent several days making up samples for everything she was going to talk about and I am so thankful she did. I don't think I would have made up any of the recipes that she brought if I didn't have a sample. She didn't bring food recipes, she brought recipes for laundry soap, dish detergent, fabric softener and liquid (and foaming) hand soap. I have to say that using up the rest of my store bought laundry detergent is killing me. I completely love the homemade laundry detergent so much more. I will also never do another load of whites without it, never!

So, to help "brighten" everyone else's week and help get everyone pumped to face our mountain of laundry (it's okay, we all have it. Sometimes I even need repelling gear to lower myself down as I sort it) I am going to share this amazing recipe with any of you who don't already have it. Some of you may already be using this detergent and are rolling your eyes right about now because I have just figured out what, quit possibly, my great-grandma used to do her laundry with. The other best part of this is when the cost is broken down for the liquid detergent it only costs you 1 cent per load to do your laundry.

Liquid Laundry Detergent

4 cups cold tap water

1 Fels-Naptha bar soap

2 cup Washing Soda

1 cup Borax

Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted. Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and borax. Stir well until powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken. Next day, stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. Top load machine use 1/2 cup, front loading machines use 1/4 cup per load.

This detergent produces low suds and is excellent for high efficiency washers.

This recipe will make a lot of detergent, if you don't do a lot of laundry you may want to find a friend to share the detergent with. Or, if you want to share it so that a few of you can try it to find out if you like it, I would recommend that as well.

I have done several loads of laundry now and like I said my whites look amazing and none of my colors have faded at all. In fact they all look a little brighter too. I also like the smell!

I will keep posting the different recipes as I try them and some of the coupon web sites that they shared with us as I try using them. I did try the dish detergent and liked how my dishes came out. I may have to add that one next. Let me know what you think or if you have any questions on finding any of the ingredients.