I recently started using homemade laundry detergent. I used that crazy Duggar woman's recipe (found here) which makes 5 gallons worth of concentrated laundry soap. You fill your empty detergent bottles halfway with the soap and the rest of the way with water and shake before every use. It's as easy as that! When I was formulating I didn't have any essential oils besides tea tree (which isn't a smell I want on my laundry) to put in my homemade laundry soap so I was left with clean laundry that no longer contained scents, dyes, or unnecessary chemicals.
I am not a perfume kind of person. In fact, when I change deodorant the new smell drives me batty for at least a week. My favorite smells are wet dirt, eucalyptus, and clean laundry. Yes, clean laundry. My mom uses Tide. I used Tide. It has become the scent I associate with clean clothes. So, this new laundry soap thing is great. It's cheap and it works. However, I miss my clean laundry smell.
For a while I continued using bounce dryer sheets to combat the lack of scent issue. Then I started doing research on making my own reusable dryer sheets. There are a million and 1 recipes for those if you're interested just google it. After doing some research I realized they all use dilutions of store bought fabric softener. I didn't like using a chemical free laundry detergent just to slather my clothes with the waxy crap that melts off the dryer sheet so why would I buy fabric softener (which I've never used in my life) just to make my own dryer sheets? My hippie brain refused to believe there wasn't another alternative.
Have you heard of dryer balls? They are usually made out of silicone and look something like this:
The idea behind them is that they bang around in your dryer to separate your clothes so they dry faster, have less wrinkles, and no noticeable static. Sounds magical doesn't it?! Well, the thing about silicone is it only withstands the heat and physical abuse of the dryer for so long before it literally starts falling apart. They don't introduce scent into your clean laundry and are not made out of an earth friendly material. So, what I found through the magic of the internet, was a how-to on making your very own dryer balls out of wool!
Here are what mine look like:
Let me just start out by saying that it is damn near impossible to find 100% wool yarn in South FL, let alone in the SUMMER! That being said, I found this awesome yarn store called Great Balls of Yarn in Stuart, FL that was the ultimate resource for all my yarn needs. I roughly followed these directions and ended up with those beauties above. The blue ones were wrapped much looser then the gray and, as you can see, felted much better then the gray balls. However, the gray ones are denser and probably serve as better dryer balls, overall. I had to wash and dry them on HOT about 3 times tied up in panty hose to get them felted to the point were I felt (har har) comfortable letting them go into a load of clean clothes. A few drops of rose essential oil on each ball and my laundry came out smelling fantastic! I am so pumped! I have only used them once so far but I'm a believer! I have no idea how long they will last but I intend to use them until their demise.
For about $13.00 I have 5 earth friendly dryer balls!
My other laundry find was something I pinned from a blog I follow called One Good Thing by Jillee. She found this great recipe for pit stains.
I am not afraid to admit that every single white shirt I own has yucky yellow armpit stains. I was not nicknamed Smelly Mellie for nothing! Whether this occurs from my sweat or my deodorant is yet to be determined. Regardless of the cause, they are unsightly and caused my white shirts to be relegated to the pajama drawer.
Over the weekend I mixed up a batch of her simple recipe which uses only blue dawn soap, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda. Scrubby scrubby, then let sit for about an hour before washing normally and voila! My disgusting pit stains are either completely gone or in the case of a particularly bad stain faded to the point of being wearable again!! Yay! I wish I thought to take before and after photos! I've been afraid to replace my white shirts because I knew I would just yellow them again. Now I don't have to waste the money because my old shirts are as good as new! I'm so glad I found this so I can use it.... when my pits strike again!
Next up:
My adventures at turning bar soap into liquid hand soap and body wash!
Stay tuned!!
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