Green

First, Happy St. Patrick's Day. My family is Irish on my mother's side for sure, and suddenly I'm drawing a blank on my dad's side. Dad's side definitely has some English...



Anyway, by Green--in the title--I mean spondulas. Bucks. Do-re-mi. As in conserving money.



The homemade laundry soap was a success. The first test was dog towels. There were many, coming off a long weekend of rain. And I think there was a dog cleanup towel too, from one stolen strawberry too many. Anyway, 5 towels, large load, 2 tablespoons homemade Laundry Soap. Clean, fresh smelling towels came out. This can't be, I thought. It was too easy.



So I went about gathering up the my towels. The ones that sometimes possibly get eyeshadow or mascara on them. Plus a few kitchen towels that had mopped up minor messes. Large load, 3 tablespoons of laundry soap since there was make-up on the handtowel and I didn't pretreat the stains. This time I added the distilled vinegar in the softener dispenser. Didn't I mention it? Distilled (white) vinegar softens. I know, amazing. And if you want a fragrance you can add essential oil of whatever you like to the vinegar for the rinse.



Now you can google to get a liquid laundry soap recipe - the ingredients are basically the same plus cooking and water. It sounded too messy to me and storage would be a problem, for me, anyway.



So I did dry. And found it here first. One bar of soap, grated, 1 cup borax, and 1 cup washing soda. And a cool container would be nice, but I used something I had.






I saved a nub of the Fels Naptha to treat spots with - it's in a little baggie with the wrapper so I will have the instructions. Now, I've also read that I can use Ivory bar soap, or a Castile bar soap. So you have options.

Oh, and interestingly, my usual Publix didn't have everything, but the Kroger did.

Well, my towels came out fresh and clean. No fragrance, but clean smelling. I am a believer. And maybe by the end of the year, richer!

One more test is underway: the dishwasher. I read that 1 tbsp washing soda + 1 tbsp borax = dishwasher soap. So, at this moment, my dishwasher is running. And the laundry softener from the laundry test? I put it in the rinse aid dispenser because I understand it gets rid of water spots.