Saturday, July 17, 2010

saturday soiree home made laundry soap

Photobucket

Tools used to shred the soap, it has three different parts to shred the soap, so I tried all three to make three batches. The point was to find the best way or easiest way to make the laundry soap.

Photobucket

first shred on the cheese grater

Photobucket

second - middle shred

Photobucket

third shred

Photobucket

now to boil the soap to melt it down

Photobucket

I marked the buckets where the water fill was supposed to be, it was much easier then trying to use a 4 cup measuring cup for gallons of water.

Photobucket

my stir-ing stick was also used as a measuring point for the water inside the buckets.

Photobucket

three buckets filled with water and ready for the melted soap to be poured in.

Photobucket

my little helper stirring the batch

Photobucket

it was work doing three batches but she still stopped to smile for me, how cute

Mine didn't turn out how the recipe says it turned out for others, mine looked like soapy water, so if it doesn't turn out slimy for you don't worry, it still works. I made these buckets in May of last year and still have 1 bucket left. I have not seen any difference in how clean the clothes are, it works just like regular store bought detergent but it is way cheaper. I use 1/2 cups of the liquid only and it works just as good, I have had no problems with this what so ever.

I got this recipe from cutting corners/tips and tricks section of sample life


This is the what taxicheermom had to say about what she did, how it worked for her and the recipe:

I’ve been experimenting with making lots of cleaning supplies at home, but this one is by far the craziest - and the most successful. Basically, I made a giant bucket of slime that works incredibly well as laundry detergent at a cost of about three cents a load. For comparison’s sake, a jumbo container of Tide at Amazon.com costs $28.99 for 96 loads, or a cost of $0.30 a load. Thus, with each load of this stuff, I’m saving more than a quarter. Even better - I got to make a giant bucket of slime in the kitchen and my wife approved of it.

Here’s what you need:
- 1 bar of soap (whatever kind you like; I used Lever 2000 because we have tons of bars of it from a case we bought a while back)
- 1 box of washing soda (look for it in the laundry detergent aisle at your local department store - it comes in an Arm & Hammer box and will contain enough for six batches of this stuff)
- 1 box of borax (this is not necessary, but I’ve found it really kicks the cleaning up a notch - one box of borax will contain more than enough for tons of batches of this homemade detergent - if you decide to use this, be careful)
- A five gallon bucket with a lid (or a bucket that will hold more than 15 liters - ask around - these aren’t too tough to acquire)
- Three gallons of tap water
- A big spoon to stir the mixture with
- A measuring cup
- A knife

Step One: Put about four cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat up on high until it’s almost boiling. While you’re waiting, whip out a knife and start shaving strips off of the bar of soap into the water, whittling it down. Keep the heat below a boil and keep shaving the soap. Eventually, you’ll shave up the whole bar, then stir the hot water until the soap is dissolved and you have some highly soapy water.

Step Two: Put three gallons of hot water (11 liters or so) into the five gallon bucket - the easiest way is to fill up three gallon milk jugs worth of it. Then mix in the hot soapy water from step one, stir it for a while, then add a cup of the washing soda. Keep stirring it for another minute or two, then add a half cup of borax if you are using borax. Stir for another couple of minutes, then let the stuff sit overnight to cool.

And you’re done. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a bucket of gelatinous slime that’s a paler shade of the soap that you used (in our case, it’s a very pale greenish blue). One measuring cup full of this slime will be roughly what you need to do a load of laundry - and the ingredients are basically the same as laundry detergent. Thus, out of three gallons, you’ll get about 48 loads of laundry. If you do this six times, you’ll have used six bars of soap ($0.99 each), one box of washing soda ($2.49 at our store), and about half a box of borax ($2.49 at our store, so $1.25) and make 288 loads of laundry. This comes up to a cost of right around three cents a gallon, or a savings of $70.

and I am linking to a Saturday party


Photobucket

Friday, July 16, 2010

oriental happiness now readable

Before from the goodwill, a nice happiness symbol sign. I really like it, but the black in the letters is a little too light in certain areas making it hard to read. My little sister Aly who is 7 always asks me what it says because she can't read it.

So I took my sharpie pen marker and went over the letters and now after......


Much better, now Aly can read the sign easily.

finished bed??

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, it's not my fault...seriously I got caught up in everyone else's fabulous blogs. I had 1,000 + blog posts to read. Without further ago here is the finished bed.

The first photo is what it looked like with the mattress and box spring. Remember it's high enough to put rubbermaid containers underneath it for storage.


For a 6 foot something man, this bed is obviously too high. What's a girl to do, but remove the box spring.


And that worked only to a point. It's shorter now, I still need to a step stool to get up on it though. And now I have another problem...the mattress is falling through the cracks of the support beams.

Now I need to get a board so the mattress doesn't fall through anymore. More on that as it progress's.