Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have made my own laundry detergent a few times, but it seems like every time I make it, I get different results. There are so many recipes online, for both powdered and liquid detergent. Recently a friend asked how I make it, and I couldn't give her an answer - it seems like I always make it different. When I ran out of my last (horrible) batch yesterday, I decided to make some more today, and nail down a basic recipe that I like. So this is what I went with today:

1 qt. plus 2 gallons water
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
1 bar Lavender scented Dr. Bronner's bar soap, finely grated
        - You can also use Zote laundry soap, which is cheaper, but I wanted to go with a more natural option. If you use Zote, only use about 1/2 bar.

Melt grated soap in 1 qt. water. Bring to boil - WATCH it - it boils over very quickly! Remove from heat, stir in borax and washing soda. Pour soap mixture into 2 gallon bucket. Stir well to make sure powders are dissolved. Fill bucket with water and let sit. It will gel as it sits. You may want to stir periodically to break up any large chunks. Pour into gallon containers. Use about 1/2 c per full load.

Melting the soap

Waiting to gel. Got a little crazy with the water sprayer and ended up all sudsy...

Hopefully this will gel. Last time I used a similar recipe, but for some reason, it didn't work right. I think I used too much water.

You can also make a powdered version - same ingredients as above, just don't melt the soap. Stir the borax, washing soda, and soap together and you're done. I made some powdered with Ivory soap once and it didn't work very well. I would recommend sticking with either Zote or Dr. Bronner's. If I made this again, I would add some generic oxyclean, which I get at Walmart for about $2.

I use the following recipe for my cloth diapers, as it's recommended not to use soap on them:

1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1 cup oxyclean

Just mix and use! Only use about 2 tablespoons of this or any other powdered detergent that you make.

All in all, this is a great way to save money, and you don't end up with quite so many chemicals in your detergent. The borax and washing soda are about $3 each, and last for atleast a few batches. Zote soap is less than $1. Dr. Bronner's is about $3-$4. So you will usually end up spending about $.05 per load. We all hate to do laundry, but maybe it will make it a little better if we know we're saving money in the process!

Cloth Diapers - Oh, My!

So I finally talked Nick into letting my buy some cloth diapers for Charlie. I have been talking about cloth diapering since before he was born, but I was blessed with an awesome dad who could get us disposable diapers from his job. And since FREE is better then costing money, we went with the sposies. Now that he can't get them for us anymore, I have my excuse to try out some cloth!

I ended up getting some random things off of diaperswappers.com and the cloth diaper swap on babycenter.com. Yes, they are USED, and yes, that is okay...That is what detergent is made for! I got a little of everything:

1 dozen new prefolds from Little Lions, which I had to prep (that was an experience...)
2 Thirsties Duo covers
2 Thirsties regular covers (I think these are too big...I guess I might hang on to them for later)
1 BumGenius pocket
2 Sunbaby pockets
2 Flip covers

With the covers, you use either a folded prefold diaper or insert on the inside. If the cover is not dirty when baby needs a change, you can just put a new insert/prefold inside the same cover. Less laundry, but more difficult. With the pockets, you stuff an insert into a pocket on the diaper and use it just like a disposable, but more laundry. I think Nick will probably like those better...

So I tried both with Charlie today, and the pockets are definitely easier, but the prefolds are more absorbent. I had quite a time trying to figure out how to put a prefold on a squirming, screaming baby! I think the pockets might be the way to go, maybe with an extra insert... I really want to figure out the prefold thing, though. They just seem way too big...

Charlie in a Sunbaby (with lunch on the floor in the background)

Cutie Booty

Isn't he adorable?!

Oh, well! Here's to learning new things!

Now I'm off to go wake up my child and put a disposable diaper on him for overnight...I am SO not ready to try to figure out how to work the nighttime thing yet...