Dishwashing soap…and the big woops!

 

 

 

 

Uses for Borax

If you read my post about homemade laundry soap and you tried it you probably had a ton of Borax left over. You could save if for the next time you make the soap, or try some of these cleaning tips with it:

Dishwasher detergent:
Mix half Borax with half Baking soda and whalla!  A great dishwashing detergent! Just use 2 TBSP per load.
Borax and baking soda are both natural disinfectants and mild abrasives so they work hard together to get your dishes clean!

Roach killer:
I didn’t know this one before but if you mix equal parts of sugar with Borax the roaches will eat both and die from the Borax. You might have some dead roaches you have to sweep up but that is better than live ones! Just sprinkle along base board or behind fridge.

Rust remover
Lemon Juice & Borax
These two can be mixed together in equal parts and sprayed or dabbed on object. Or object can be submerged in solution. Soak for 30 minutes the rinse and dry. Repeat if needed.

Scented Spray cleaner
1/4 cup of dishwashing soap
1/4 cup of white vinegar
2 tsp of Borax
3 1/2 cups of hot water
Lemon or citrus essential oil (5-6 drops or more)
Mix and pour into a spray bottle.
Use this in every room of the house, the lemon helps to cut grease.
Floor and wall cleaner

• Fill a bucket with about 1 gallon of warm water.
  
• Add about 1/3 cup Borax.
  
• Add 1 teaspoon liquid dishwashing detergent.
  
• Mix in about 1 tablespoon ammonia.

Scouring Powder (for kitchen and bathroom)

• Measure 1/4 cup borax; pour into a container.
  
• Add 1/4 cup baking soda.
  
• Add 1 1/2 cups hot water.
  
• Stir until mixed.

How to dry flowers with borax

• Cut flowers you wish to preserve, with or without stem.
  
• Sprinkle borax on the bottom of a small box such as a shoe box.
  
• Add up to two flowers.
  
• Completely cover with more borax.
  
• Tape the box shut.
  
• Let sit at room temperature for about one week.
  
• When dried completely, strain off the borax powder; may be reused for more flower drying.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner Pour 1 cup of borax into the toilet bowl at night before you go to sleep. The next morning clean out the toilet bowl with a brush. You will find the job effortless because the borax has loosened all the grime buildup. Note that this method of toilet cleaning works very well for rust rings.
Flea Killer Sprinkle borax on dog beds, carpets, and other areas where you suspect that fleas are hatching. Borax releases boric acid, which is a poison (note that very high doses would need to be ingested to harm a pet or human).
Mold Inhibitor This method of inhibiting mold is very good to use on areas where mold and mildew is growing but that you don’t need to worry about paint being damaged. Make a thick borax and water paste. Smear it on the moldy area. Let set until dry (overnight or longer). Sweep up the powder, and rinse off the rest.
Mice Deterrent Sprinkle borax on the floor along the walls (mice like to run along the side of walls). They don’t like getting the borax on their feet, so they are less likely to return to that area of the house.

All Purpose Cleaner Put 2 teaspoons of borax in a spray bottle with 2 cups of very hot water. Shake to blend.
Another All-Purpose Cleaner and Disinfectant 1 teaspoon borax 1/2 teaspoon washing soda 2 Tablespoons lemon juice

• In a spray bottle that will hold at least a pint, combine the ingredients. Add 1 cup very hot water and shake well, mixing and dissolving the dry ingredients.
  
• To use, simply spray and wipe. This can be stored indefinitely.

Homemade 409 Recipe:

• 2 Tbsp. Distilled White Vinegar
  
• 1 Tsp. Borax
  
• 1/8 cup Dawn Dishsoap
  
• 1 cup Hot Water
  
• Triggered Spray Bottle {16 oz.}

Pour vinegar, borax and hot water into spray bottle. Then continue filling spray bottle with cool water. Add Dawn Dishsoap last. {no need to shake}

Remember remember: NEVER MIX BLEACH AND AMMONIA TOGETHER!

Homemade Laundry Soap

You never know what you get when you go to Wal-mart. Specially when you’ve been under budget all month. This is what I brought home when I did a run for protein drinks. I’ve never bought protein drinks and had a terrible time finding them. Thus the reason I found soap while looking for drinks…lol!

I found Fels –Naptha! I’ve never found this stuff before but at this out-of-the-way (yet huge) wal-mart, there it was, and right next to the washing soda and borax. Everything I need to make my own homemade laundry detergent. So, as any good wife does I scooped it up even though I am not even close to running out of laundry detergent. (still working on 5 gallons of liquid detergent I made in Janurary.)

I was surprised at how yellow the Fels-Naptha is! I guess it is a stain removing bar. I think you get it wet and rub it on the stains on your clothes. Glad they came out with Shout, though I bet this works great too. It was 99 cents a bar.
There are many recipes for home made landry soap. Many can be found here. I like this link because it has so many you can see what you have on hand and then make it. Or you can try out liquid instead of powder…lots of options.
The recipe I used this time is a touch different and even with that I changed it a little. I got it from Mommy minded blog here!

Here is my adapted version:
1/2 cup grated Dove bar soap (if you leave it out for a day or two it is easier to grate)
1/2 cup grated Fels-Naptha (About 1/2 bar)
1 cup Washing Soda (not baking soda)
1 cup Purex Crystals
 

First I grated theFels-Naptha


Then I stuck it in my (Little) food processor to created a finer grate.
I did the same with the dove bar. Then I got a large bowl out and added 1 cup each of the washing soda and the borax.
You will probably have a lot of both the borax and and washing soda left over. Good for you. If you don’t use borax for many other household uses just save it for the next time you make this soap!
Here they are all mixed together. You can stop there…or add the Purex crystals. I was going to stop there but when I was looking at the crystals in wal-mart and deciding not to get them. That would add about $4 to the price of this detergent! A customer walked by and saw me studying the bottle and said, “Oh, that stuff is amazing. Have you ever tried it! It is wonderful!”


Ok, so I am a sucker for personal recommendation. Into the cart it went!
I got the smaller bottle which was $3.97. Not a terrible price to try something out.
I did find a facebook coupon for $1 off here, after I got back. Guess I should have been more prepared.

So I added a cup of that to the mix and was surprised the all the color!

This is after making several batches. I think I did 4 but I should have counted.
Check out the containers I got at a thrift store. They were $6 and NOT on sale but I was a sucker and really liked them. I need to make another label for the new soap. I added a hook using a paperclip and it works great to hold my 1/8 cup scoop that I use for measuring.
If you have a front loading washer you can get by with just 1 tablespoon. Also this is perfectly safe for HE washers. The problem with normal soap is it suds to much for the low water volume of the he washers. This stuff cleans but without a lot of suds. Making it perfect to replace the money making scheming HE detergent makers =)
I didn’t get a picture of the liquid detergent that I have but here is the new and the old powder.

It is a lot. I mean, when you only use a few Tablespoons think how long this stuff will last me. I think I might end up mixing them to make the Purex last longer. We shall see.









So here is a break down of cost:
Per batch:

Washing soda: 1 cup = 4 cents
Borax:            1 cup = 3.5 cents
Fels-Nelpha    1/2 cup= 48 cents.
Dove soap     1/2 cup = 9 cents
Purex crystals 1 Cup = 96 Cents
Total cost for 1 batch = $5.57 for 64 loads- Or about 9 cent per load.
Wow the Purex really adds to the cost!

Linking:
Mad Skills Party

House Keeping

 

My new game plan for daily organizing and house keeping.

These are copies of sheets I found on MONEYSAVINGMOM’s site. I have found them to be VERY thorough.

I thought I would share them with everyone. You don’t need to use the sheets but I do believe they give you a great idea of a place to start changing one’s lifestyle.

If you do list all the time this is a great idea for you!

 

The other half of the page is a weekly to-do list. Now, the lady that made this list keeps it and has at least 2 kids. I found that to be encouraging!

You can print it here: from Money Saving Mom

Making your own Clorox Disinfecting wipes

For all the recycling I do on this site, I really am not that much into recycling. Let me put it this way. I checked into getting one of those green recycling bins to try to recycle and as soon as I found out it cost extra to have them pick it up I chickened out. Yep, that is about how dedicated I am. Now I do recycle about 80% of the paper that comes though our house, but only because our church does fundraisers through paper recycling and it is a bin we pass every Sunday.

I can’t say I’m hardcore.

But I love saving money! I mean…we are talking true love here!

So when I saw a way to make Clorox wipes without paying for them I was on board! But the recipe called for a bunch of stuff I don’t have on hand. No Bueno. That means spending money. Which is why I don’t buy Clorox Wipes in the first place. Or any other brand since even the off brand is pricey! Here is the recipe:

Homemade Disinfecting Wipes

• Squares of cloth
• water
• castile soap
• Tea Tree Oil
• white vinegar
• some kind of container

well, I have water and I have White Vinegar…yep, that is it. Unless I can get some tea and mix it with a tree the others just aren’t going to happen. So this is what I did!

First I cut up a college shirt that was WAY too big.

I cut them in different sized but next time I think I might try to stick with the same size. Just about what the wipes are but even a bit smaller since it is cotton and is sturdier.

Then I got an old wipes container, a plastic Glad or Tupperware with a lid would work fine too.

Then I pulled what cleaners I had and included Vinegar, since that is what it called for!

I stared with 1 1/4 cup of water and added Pine Cleaner (to cover up the smell of the Vinegar) and Vinegar. Just dumped them in and added more as was needed. Start small, you can always add too it.

Then I poured it over the cloths. You can fold them like your baby wipes or just throw them in there. I folded them so that when I pull one out the next comes up.

After pouring the mixture on it I thought I had too much but I think for the cloth I had 2ish cups was perfect.

I pulled one out and the other popped right up! I set to work cleaning up the counter and it worked fabulously! You can even rewash them. I threw mine away because I forgot but I will try to rewash the next one. For my t-shirts sake!

I love them because you can do so much more with them then with the disposable wipes. They last longer. I can clean all my countertops instead of just one!

I now make it with Vinegar and water only, cuz my daughter likes to suck on them. Ukk! But they still clean just as well. And she LOVES to help me!

Getting more organized: Receipt holder

Today my goal was to tackle the laundry room. I started the tackle but in mid-dive I was interrupted by a visitor at my door. A wonderful interruption, I must say, and one that lead to many other interruptions and no clean laundry room. But as soon as my 1 and 3 year old hit the sack I’m finishing that tackle (so to speak)!

No, that’s not my laundry room. However one that size would be amazing! I think that is bigger than my kid’s room! It is way less embarrassing showing someone else’s dirty rooms then my own!

However it is tax time at our house and that has made me very aware that I need to have a better system(ok maybe just any kind of system) for my receipts. And what better way than to make it cute?

So I took a (Free) photo envelope made of heavy duty cardstock and some paper from Michael’s I got for free too (another story) & some glue (ok, I had it on hand but I did pay for it.) and made the start of a filing system for my receipts. Here is how you do it:

First I took apart the envelope.

Then I traced the now flat envelope onto the back of my printed paper and cut it out.

Then I simply glued the envelope to the paper.

And walla! Almost done!

Here it is! A very sturdy way to file my receipts. I can make more of them and coordinate them by color. Now for a label.

I used a label I had printed out that is free on Cathe Holden’s site here and here.

Trust me. Cathe’s JustsomethingImade.com is a valuable resource and a great way to spend a day looking through all that she has done!

She also has another idea for receipt holder here.

Ok! Off to put the kids to bed and finish that tackle! Wish me luck!

Bleaching: today’s chore

 

Even though by my title I sound like I started spraying everything with disinfecting bleach I didn’t. Don’t worry. No crazy anti-germ person here. Just a person who is striving for a clean house.

In my real simple books I borrowed from the library I discovered how handy bleach can be from everything to disinfection to just old fashion cleaning!

Today I cleaned my sink. I know, it sounds like a simple task but I used a method found that is what I consider the ultimate cleaning job on your sink!

Here are the step by step instructions:

BE SURE AND RINSE WELL BETWEEN EACH STEP OF THE WAY!

1. Take all the dishes out of the sink.
2. Run some very hot water into the sink. Fill to the rim. Only do one side at a time. Then, pour a cup of household bleach into the hot water. Let it sit for 1 hour. Now, pull the plug with a pair of tongs. If you don't have tongs, then scoop some of the water out of the sink into the other sink and use your hand to pull the plug (wear gloves and don't get the bleach-water on your clothes).
3. Rinse your sink well.
4. Use some cleanser (Comet, Ajax, or Baking Soda) and scrub your sink. Ensure you rinse ALL of the cleanser from the sink.
5. Take a sharp edge and clean around the rim of the sink, just like you would clean dirt out from under your fingernails.
6. Clean around the faucets too. You may need an old toothbrush or dental floss.
7. Now, get out your window cleaner, I use Windex, and give it a good shine.
8. If you still don't like the way it looks, then you could try some car wax. Just know in your heart that you have cleaned it very well now and it doesn't have to be perfect. Our perfectionism is what got us in this situation in the first place.
9. Every time you run water in your sink, take your clean dishtowel and dry it out (I lay out a clean one, every night with my before bedtime routine). Before you know it, you will be doing this every time you leave your kitchen. The rest of the family will too. No more water spots. You will have a clean and shiny sink.

While letting my sinks soak (I have two in the kitchen) I used water and bleach on the floors, and I used it on my table, and all the dinning room chairs and stools. I had to be sure to rinse it off or it left streaks, never a good thing.

I never thought about the need to clean dinning chairs weekly until I saw this downloadable pages of how a fellow blogger does her house work: Click here to see her daily tasks and her weekly tasks here. It was really neat to see how organized someone was about their week. Oh, and the fact that she has children as well was encouraging!

Well, there was a bit of my day, as well as picking up and laundry and dishes. Always something to do around here, and always wonderful to stay home the whole day with no errands to run!

 

 

Getting more organized, Day by Day…

I got a bit worried when I was talking to a friend who is older than me who was saying how it amazes her how she thinks that if she could just get organized enough everything would stay organized. She was disappointed to find this wasn’t the case.

I was disappointed to find that it wasn’t the case for her either. But I still hope that it will be the case for me. There HAS to be a system out there that can keep everything neat. To that end I visited the library this week.

Yes, can you tell I’ve been reading Real Simple?

Ok, so I find their pictures to be rather unrealistic but not nearly as bad as other magazines I have been reading. Besides, each of these books are worth over $20 so I was thrilled to borrow them from the library!

So here was my 1st big project:

Yes, it is very scary, I know.

And no, this is not my junk drawer! This is my kitchen bathroom drawer.

Well, after a run to the thrift store, a couple of 49cent purchases, some paper that I got out of a dumpster (yes, I do that too!) and a touch of sewing. This is what I ended up with!

Doesn’t that just make you sigh in relief!!!?? Ahh, so much better. yes, I took some things out. I threw away a few and discovered that I have multiples of others, like toothpaste! I thought we were almost out. Wrong! Try about 5 bottles that are unopened! Good grief! I can’t live like this. So that discovery lead to more organization with a touch more sewing:

This is in my over-the-john cabinet.

I’m not crazy about the unorganized stacking, more like piling, but it will work for now. I sewed the labels on so I can remove it and use the bags for something else in the future.

Her is our medicine cabinet now:

You can imagine how this looked before. NOT GOOD. Now it all fits in the tub! Yay!

Why the bright green cloth, you might ask, well, it is what I had on hand, well, that or two different colors of pink. Yea, I go with green.