Jul 18

The All Too Messy Upstairs Closet

I have three cleaning projects in my house that I need to do, but I really truly dread doing. The Utility Room storage needs to be cleaned out, pared down, and re-organized. The Scary closet downstairs needs a lot of work. It is home to holiday supplies, and odds and ends that I throw in there when I have no idea what else to do with them. Lastly, the upstairs hallway and closet are in need of some serious cleaning.The closet is packed, and the mess is piling up in the hallway.

I walk by the upstairs mess several times a day, but I could never see a good time to clean it, or where to even begin with the huge mess. Last weekend James surprised me by pulling everything out of the closet, and well, it was decided we were going to tackle the mess right then and there.

It took several hours. We cleaned out at least eight large boxes of papers/stuff/things that made us say just why did we keep that. We also hauled out two very full contractor bags full of clutter.

We stopped, and took a little break and went shopping for some supplies. We picked bins and totes to organize what we would be keeping.

These two large bins are filled with the boy’s papers from school.  I think I need a few more of them, I might have another box or two hanging out in the scary downstairs closet.

The end result looks fantastic. We cleaned out so much, and we have room to store more bins if we need to. We are planning on painting the shelves, and I’m going to make a curtain to cover the closet.

It was one of those projects that I really didn’t want to do, but I am so glad that it is done. It’s nice to have the upstairs a little more clutter free. Now on to the next mess.

Jul 16

Crochet Projects in the Works

I’m still working on the same projects this Summer. They are coming along though.

I’ve made two hundred and forty granny squares for a blanket.

I had to make a  yarn run.

Agnes’ afghan is coming along nicely too.

A few more skeins of pretty pink yarn, and it should be done.

Jul 11

This Week

This week has been another one of those weeks. The hot weather has set in, and the Summertime moodiness is in full swing. The kids are bored, but not bored enough to want to go back to school.

They have been fighting, a lot… It is always two at a time, with only one acting right. Oh goodness, I am one tired mommy.

The whining and complaining is non-stop too. Mainly with the middle one, he hasn’t liked anything this Summer. He complains/whines constantly, and it is driving me nuts.

The littlest one is the screamer and fighter. She is usually the one ending the fights, and she has spent a lot of the Summer in time-out.

My oldest is pretty good, most of the time. He has been helping out a little more around the house, but he is quick to pick a fight with his little brother.

I need a day out…

Jul 9

Homemade Laundry Powder

When we were going through the budget, I was running through my mind on just what we could cut from the weekly grocery bill. I couldn’t think of where to start, but then I looked at the giant pile of laundry waiting for me. It made me think that laundry detergent would be a start. I’ve seen lots of recipes to make it at home, so let’s give it a try.

I do a lot of laundry. Most days three loads at least. If I wait a day or two I have ten loads of laundry waiting for me. I seem to buy laundry detergent at least once or twice a month. If I can find the brand that I like, it is usually on sale for $5.00. So that is at least $10.00 a month that is just going to laundry.

I looked up a few different recipes for homemade laundry powder on Pinterest. I then headed to amazon to shop prices. They were a bit much, but then I read through all of the comments. They all seemed to say the same thing,  check your local store first, you should be able to pick up everything for around $10.00. We were heading to the grocery store on Monday, so I added the supplies to my list, and scratched off the ready-made laundry detergent.

I found everything on my list to make the detergent, and I picked up a grater to be used for soap only, and a set of measuring spoons and cups to use for detergent only too. The grand total was just $12.68, just a few bucks more than I usually spend in a month for detergent.

I set up everything in the utility room, and I got to grating. I decided to make a batch using the Pink Zote soap first. It did take a while to grate the soap, and my flakes were not as teeny-tiny as I had seen in the pictures on Pinterest. A friend of mine suggested to microwave the soap for one to two minutes, let it rest, and then it should flake nicely. I’m going to try that on the next batch.

The recipe that I used called for one cup of Borax, one cup of Arm & Hammer washing powder, and one bar of laundry soap, grated. I combined all of the of the ingredients in an old plastic ice cream container, and gave it a good shake. You use one to two tablespoons of the laundry powder per load.

I washed three loads of laundry with the new laundry powder, and it worked very well. The scent was pleasant after going through the dryer, and the clothes were soft too. Here’s hoping that none of us are allergic to it…  I missed one very ice cream stained shirt of Agnes’, so that one didn’t get cleaned too well, but a little pre-treater should do the trick.

The cost and the time spent were well worth it too. I’ll be making the detergent again, and enjoying a bit of grocery savings too. The only downside was when I grated my finger. I’m a bit accident prone when it comes to graters, and veggie peelers, but that won’t keep me from grating laundry soap.

I have no idea how long the first batch will last our family. If I keep up with making laundry detergent at home it should save us around $100 off of our yearly grocery budget. I think I’m off to a good start.

What about you? Do you make laundry detergent at home? How do you save when it comes to this daily chore?