DIY Friday

'Tis an old deserted homestead
On the outskirts of the town,
Where the roof is all moss-covered,
And the walls are tumbling down;
But around that little cottage
Do my brightest mem'ries cling,
For 'twas there I spent the moments
Of my youth, life's happy spring.

 -Paul Lawrence Dunbar

homemade citrus soap



Due to the need for frugality around here and of course my non-stop need to be making something, I decided to try my hand at homemade laundy soap.  I already have a whole lot of bar soap from the soapmaking extravagana a few months ago so I found this recipe online.  If you think you don't have time to do this you are wrong.  It's ridiculously easy, you just have to aqcuire something called washing soda, which I bought at my local conventional supermarket. 

All Natural Homemade Laundry Soap

hot h2o

1 bar soap

1 cup washing soda

essential oil

-grate the soap and add to a large sauce pan, cover with hot h2o and whisk until dissolved

-fill a bucket or very large bowl with 2.5 gallons of hot h20, add disolved soap and stir well

-add washing soda, stir well until disolved

-cool and add 15-20 drops essential oil of your choice

(* the recipe says that the detergent will gel up after it cools)

I made 1.5 x the recipe and it filled 2 of my extra large Ecos laundry soap containers (6.21 liters each), all for around $2.00 and a half an hour of my time. 

Not bad at all.