All Purpose Cleaner

I got this recipe from a Green Convention. I got a big Home Depot spray bottle with this recipe. It broke before the solution was used up. Get bottles at WalMart for a buck! Half the recipe if you have a smaller spray bottle.

30 oz. water
4 Tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons borax
(10 drops fragrance)

I haven't used this recipe in a long time, because I never had borax around. I just mixed equal parts water and vinegar, it works great! Vinegar has some disinfecting properties and also kills nasty smells. I use vinegar for lots of household needs. I just made a batch of laundry detergent, so I am going to start making this recipe again since I have borax on hand. But if you don't have it, vinegar and water is fine. It costs just pennies to make. I used to buy 409 all purpose cleaner, haven't bought a bottle in 3 years.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I was getting low on All Free & Clear liquid detergent. I was dreading a trip to Sam's. Not only do my Sam's trips turn expensive really quick, but it was the end of January, which meant the end of our monthly budget. I just wanted to hold off until February. We made a trip to WalMart and my husband said "Why don't you just buy a small jug of detergent to get you through until February and it won't cost very much." A valid idea. But I of course think of value when I buy. Groceries are shopped for by the unit price, not the listed price. And something like laundry detergent is bought by price per load. I think All was about 11 cents per load.

I use Country Save for my cloth diapers. It's a detergent free of dyes and perfumes, it's a detergent for clothes, but safe for diapers as well. I did the math on how many loads I do, how many boxes I had left, and if I would need to buy more by the time I was done with diapers. I figured I would, in fact, need to buy more detergent, so I could always use that for my regular laundry too. When I did the math, Country Save was 10 cents per load. Hmm...

I remembered that I had made my own detergent once. I wasn't impressed by it. It didn't clean my clothes any better than other detergents and I found it to be a hassle. Stirring and dunking a scooper in a huge bucket with every load. And now with 2 kids, I do a lot of laundry. I need laundry time to be easy and quick. I hate how the liquid detergents (like All) always leak and create a soapy mess on my shelf. So I contemplated homemaking a powdered detergent. My math came out to 5 cents a load. Wow! I did the math on homemade liquid detergent... 1 cent per load. Yikes! That sold me right then and there. But only if I could find a way to easily mix and dispense. I remembered a watching the Duggar's on TLC. I googled the Duggar recipe and it suggested filling an old liquid detergent container and giving it a shake before you dispense. Here is the recipe:

http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/duggar_recipes/30455/homemade_liquid_laundry_soap_front_or_top_load_machine_best_value

Ingredients; cheap and all found at WalMart. Process; quick and easy. I bought a 5 gallon bucket with a lid at Lowe's to store my gelled detergent. Every time my dispenser runs out, I just fill it half with water and half with detergent. Shakey shake and done. And for a tenth of the price! Oh, and it does clean our clothes very well! Even my husband's work clothes come out smelling fresh and clean.