So glad it wasn't something I did wrong... just ignorance

I made cupcakes last night for Samantha's class party for her birthday. It was a great Mommy daughter activity and we had a blast. I let them cool, iced them and went to taste one, just to make sure they were "fit to eat" as my granny used to say... and they weren't! Totally burnt on the bottom. So, I sent the hubs to the store this morning to save the day, but I'm irked because I have all this free cake mix and icing I got with my coupons, but can't seem to make a decent cupcake. Then I found this website. I'm going to try it the next time and hopefully it works. Anyone else have this experience?

Cupcake Conundrum!

Before you throw it out, try homemade laundry soap!

Welcome to the January 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Experiments in Natural Family Living
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have reported on weeklong trials to make their lives a little greener. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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My family lives in the sticks!  We have a well and a septic system and our water is very “rusty”.  Even with a super powered water softener, the floor in the shower is slowly turning orange and there are orange rings around every drain. 

Add that to the fact that the hubs and both of my girls have sensitive skin that is prone to breakouts and rashes. 

These two facts make it very hard to clean our clothes effectively.  I’ve been experimenting with different recipes for homemade laundry soap for a while now thinking there has to be a better way than buying the expensive “free” detergents that don’t really work.  I think I have my formula down, so I decided to put it to the test.

The hubs and I were going through our closet to purge things we no longer wear.  Many (like a dozen or more) of his dress shirts for work looked nice except for these horrible, crusty bits under the armpits, left after repeated washings that didn’t remove all the deodorant (I know, I know, I need to try all natural, but we are sweataholics in this family.  We would be known as the “Pits” if we did that!) and then I ironed it in, making it even worse.

Since I’ve been using my new formulation, I have noticed way less residue in his pitage area, so I wondered if it would take out past stains that were really set in.  So, here’s where we started:

Then, I washed a whole load of shirts just like this.  I didn’t put stain remover stick on the pits, just washed in my normal formula and dried them in the dryer like normal.  Here is the result!

The nasty, shirt-destroying stains are gone and a dozen shirts headed for the donation bin are back in the closet.  Saving us time to shop for more shirts, money to pay for them, and making us feel better about the amount of use we get from things before getting rid of them.

So, what’s my magic formula you ask?  Here it is:

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

4  Cups - hot tap water
1/2  Fels-Naptha^TM soap bar

1 - Kirk’s Original Hard Water Castille Soap^TM bar

1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda^TM

½ Cup Borax^TM

- Grate bars of soap (I actually use my food processor for this!) and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.  Stay close to it.  If it boils over, it’s very soapy!

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket (I use a paint bucket with a lid) half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.  It’ll be almost like the consistency of jello.

-Stir up your mix.  Fill some kind of jug (I use old juice or iced tea jugs or old laundry soap jugs) about 1/3 full or water.  Then fill the rest of the way with your soap mixture.  (If you put the soap in first, then the water, it gets really foamy and hard to fill so put the water in first.)  It will separate, so leave a little space at the top and shake well before dispensing

*Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.  I don’t do this because of skin issues in my house, but I might try it next time.  The Fels-Naptha has a slightly orangey scent, so it’s enough to make things smell good.

-I have a top loading High Efficiency machine, so this recipe is pretty concentrated.  I use ½ cup per load.  You might need to adjust the concentration and the amount depending on the kind of machine you use.

-This makes about 7.5 gallons of laundry soap and the total cost to purchase all the ingredients is less than $10.  And you still have the washing soda and Borax for the next time!

DON’T FORGET THIS PART! – The other thing that makes this work really, really well is the “fabric softener” I use.  In my fabric softener dispenser for each load, I add ½ cup of white vinegar.  I get this by the gallon at the bulk store for $1.50 and one jug lasts about a month.  I think this is the most important step for getting out the residue normally left in our clothes from all the minerals in our water.



Gallon of Vinegar (fabric softener) on the left and the finished laundry soap on the right



I hope this works as well for you.  It’s a very easy thing to do and I figure I save at least $200 a year on laundry soap and fabric softener.  Let me know the results you’ve had.  Happy washing!

*NOTE: ™ = Trademark. All trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Make your own moisturizer! — Megan at boho mama whips up a winter skin-friendly moisturizer.
• Cold Water Only — Brittany at The Pistachio Project talks about how you do not need hot water to wash laundry.
• Family Cloth... Really?? — After lots of forethought and consideration, Momma Jorje finally decides to take the plunge with family cloth.
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle : 5-5-5 Things A Day — Luschka from Diary of a First Child writes about decluttering her home in an attempt to create a gentler living space. She takes on a new project where she sets a goal of reducing, reusing and recycling every day.
• Pros and cons of family cloth — Lauren at Hobo Mama would love to continue replacing paper products with family cloth … if she could only get over how damp she feels.
• Craftily Parenting — Kellie at Our Mindful Life finds that crafting makes her a better parent.
• Changes — Laura at Pug in the Kitchen couldn't choose just one area to experiment with, so she wrote a long post about all the fun changes initiated in her life!
• Life without Internet: Not all it's Cracked up to Be — Adrienne at Mommying My Way tries to go a week without the Internet, only to realize a healthy dose of Internet usage really helps keep this stay-at-home mom connected.
• My Progression to Raw Milk — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling shares her natural parenting progression all the way to trying raw milk.
• mama's new little friend. — Sarah at Bitty Bird tries a menstrual cup to "green her period," and is pleasantly surprised when she falls in love with the product!
• Before you throw it out, try homemade laundry soap! — Jennifer at Practical OH Mommy shows visual proof that homemade laundry soap is cheaper, easier, and works better than the store-bought chemicals!
• Oil, Oil, No Toil, No Trouble — K from Very Simple Secret talks about her foray into the oil-cleansing method.
• I Need a Hobby — Amanda at Let's Take the Metro couldn't decide which experiment to run, so she did them all.
• 7 days of macrobiotics for a balanced family — The Stones make a [successful] attempt to release the "holiday junking" with 7 days of macrobiotic meals to balance their bodies and souls. Elisabeth at Manic Mrs. Stone includes an explanation of macrobiotics.
• Chemical Free Beauty Challenge — Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction turned to natural alternatives for her daily beauty and cleaning routine, with great results.
• Greening my Armpits!? My Green Resolution — Shannon at The Artful Mama talks about how she decided to give up her traditional antiperspirant and make the switch over to crystal deodorants and definitely isn't looking back!
• Going Raw (for a while) — Jenny at Chronicles of a Nursing Mom shares her family's experience with raw food.
• Do we get to eat gluten today? — Sheila at A Gift Universe has been trying to figure out if her son does better with or without gluten in his diet … but it's really hard to tell for sure.
• Hippies Can Smell and Look Fabulous Too! — Arpita of Up, Down And Natural details her experience of going shampoo-free and overhauling her cosmetics to find the balance between feeling beautifully fabulous and honoring her inner hippie.
• Our cupboards are full...but there's nothing to eat — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud takes on the challenge of chomping through the contents of her storecupboard rather than going shopping — but there's something that she just can't bring herself to do …
• Elimination Experiment 3.0 — MudpieMama recounts the messy adventures of her baby daughter trying to be diaper free.
• Family Cloth Trial — Amyables at Toddler in Tow talks about making and using family cloth wipes in the bathroom for the first time.
• Taking a Hiatus — Amy at Peace 4 Parents shares how her experience of much less internet interaction affected her family and how it will change her approach in the future.
• Trying Out the Menstrual Cup — Lindsey at an unschooling adventure ditches the tampons and gives menstrual cups a try.
• Managing Food Waste in Our Home — Tired of the holiday waste, Robbie at Going Green Mama takes a weeklong focus on reducing food waste in her home, and learns some lessons that can take her through the new year.
• Going Offline, Cloth Tissues, and Simplicity — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama muses over her time away from blogging and social networking. In addition, she shares her newfound love of cloth tissues and simplicity.
• The Oil Cleansing Method — Erica at ChildOrganics explores an easy, organic and natural way to tackle skin care.
• Experiments in Natural Family Living - Natural Toys! — Lani at Boobie Time enjoys the silence of natural toys and being more present with her son.
• Discovering a New City and Organic Foods — Amy at A Secure Base describes her family's switch to and search for organic foods for one week.
• My Experiment in Homemade Bread — Crunchy Con Mommy tried — and loved — baking her own homemade bread.
• Menu Planning: Stop the Excuses — Gaby at Tmuffin stopped the excuses and started planning her weekly meals, drastically cutting her grocery budget and stress level and improving the quality of foods she fed her family.
• My First Menstrual Cup — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children was pleasantly surprised with her first experience using a menstrual cup.
• My Natural Beauty Regime — Christine at African Babies Don’t Cry shares the results of banishing cleanser and soaps from her bathroom, as well as a couple of natural homemade recipes that have worked well on her skin.
• Unplugging and Creating a Rhythm: Our Experiment in Natural Family Living — Dionna at Code Name: Mama focused less on gadgets and spent more time with her family to create a healthy rhythm for the new year.
• Experiments in Natural Family Living: 5 First Steps Toward Preparing for a Natural Birth — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama discusses how she tackled the pressing matter of how to begin preparing for a natural birth.
• All you need is...vinegar! — Kristen at My Semi-Crunchy Life learns that one household product can replace all the cleaners in her cabinet.
• Nope Nada Ixnay Negative Pass Decline — Zoie at TouchstoneZ finds out what shakes loose if she says, "YES!!" to anything anyone asks of her over the space of 10 days.
• Reducing our exposure to toxins found in plastics — Syenna at Gently Parenting Twins throws out the melamine and BPA plastics which have been hanging around the kitchen for too long.
• Duh! — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment shares how she began the process of helping her 2-year-old son stop physically acting out.
• Experiments in Natural Parenting: Starting, Stopping, and Gaining Perspective — Melissa at Vibrant Wanderings explains how pregnancy brain interfered with her attempts to complete an experiment, but how she gained some interesting perspective as she started and stopped several.
• From Experiment to Lifestyle — Abbie at Farmer's Daughter shares her experience avoiding processed foods for a month, and deciding to make it a permanent lifestyle change.
• From Disposable Paper to Reusable Cloth – AGAIN! — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle stops flushing trees down the toilet and switches to the softest ever butt-wiping material: cloth.
• Extra! Extra! Water Heater Turned Down, Mom Doesn't Notice! — Thomasin at Propson Palingenesis finds an energy-saving experiment that's so easy she didn't even realize it was happening.
• Worm Tea — CatholicMommy isn't sure how successful her worm bin will be, but she's having fun anyway.
• Miles to Go ... — Rachael at The Variegated Life learns that when it comes to sleep debt, she's in real deep.
• My Month With Water Kefir — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries experiments with a new fermented probiotic drink homemade in her own kitchen.
• OMG Mom is Home... All Day Everyday: A Week-Long Experiment in Connecting — What a difference a week makes! Ana at Pandamoly is afforded a week off from work and takes the chance to reconnect and reattach with her 16-month-old son through an experiment in simply being there.
• Creating Healthy Family Recipes — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares her experiment with healthy, gluten-free recipes and a chocolate muffin recipe that was created during the experiment.
• Adventures in Alternative Haircare: No 'Poo — This guest post at Natural Parents Network from Amy at Anktangle chronicles a months-long journey into the world of no 'poo.
• My Experiment in Natural Family Living: Natural Family Planning — Birth control options are seriously limited for those of us trying to live a little closer to the earth, so Mama Psalmist experiments with natural family planning.