Letters from Momma is giving away a 45/90 load bag of Rockin' Green in choice of formula and scent!

Enter HERE!

Ends Sept. 15th!

Rockin Green Giveaway {Mommy & Me Giveaways}

Mommy and Me Giveaway is giving away a 45/90 Bag of Rockin Green Soap!

Enter HERE!
Ends September 5th!

Clothespin Bag Giveaway {Happenings of the Harper Household}

Happenings of the Harper Household is giving away a Clothespin Bag from Chez Lele!

Enter HERE!
Ends August 20th!

Homemade Laundry Detergent? Really? Yup!

Well we've embarked on a new level of crunchy in the Smitty household. 

 I started using homemade laundry detergent. All it took was a bar of soap, washing soda, Borax and a grater! While I know Dove isn't a true soap, it's what I had on hand and I looked up reviews on using it for this purpose and most people didn't have any problems with it.

The Washing Soda was $3.39, the Borax was $4.05, the Dove bar was something I had in the pantry, but a bar usually costs about $1.50 and at only $0.50, the grater was a steal in the PX dollar bins. 

Grating the soap was the most difficult part. After about a quarter of the bar, the grater got clogged and wouldn't shave anymore. I ended up having to clean the grater 3 times before I was done. Not a huge problem, only time consuming. 1 cup shaved soap, 1 cup Washing Soda, 1 Cup Borax. I mixed the ingredients for a few minutes, poured it into a storage container, labeled it and was done!

I've already done a load of the kids clothing and a load of hubby's uniforms straight from the field. A half cup of distilled white vinegar in substitution of traditional softener and my laundry came out smelling like nothing! No scent, no residue, no funk. I have clean laundry and it was way cheaper than conventional laundry detergent! Toddler and Baby Girl have both worn clothing cleaned by this detergent and neither have had any skin reactions either! 

Now that I know it works, I want to try a few drops of essential oil to add a soft scent. Should I try Tea Tree Oil or Grapefruit? I don't have anything else on hand at the moment. And it will take a while for me to trust the detergent enough to try it on my cloth diaper stash. For now I'll stick with RnG as I've never had a problem with stink, stains or skin reactions with it.

Edited to add: I only used a tablespoon of the mix for a large load of laundry and half a cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle for a softener. 

Nellie's Laundry Soda Giveaway {The Nurse Mommy}

The Nurse Mommy is giving away Nellie's All Natural Laundry Soda!

Enter HERE!
Ends July 30th!

Crunchy Clean Giveaway {Sugar Pop Ribbons}

Sugar Pop Ribbons is giving away a $15 GC to Crunchy Clean!

 

You could put $15 towards a large jar of Crunchy Clean Diaper Friendly Detergent!

Enter HERE!
Ends July 20th!

A Years Worth of Detergent Giveaway {Ruby Moon Natural Laundry Wash}

Ruby Moon Natural Laundry Wash is celebrating their 1 Year Anniversary

by giving away a YEARS worth of detergent! That's 12 Bags!

Enter HERE!
Ends July 31st!

Weekly Project 4/10-4/16: DIY Laundry Line

It's officially warm and sunny out! Which means it's laundry line season! 

This week, I'm going to brag about how we save (a lot of) money each year by line drying our laundry! 

This is my list of clothesline benefits: 

1. Cost Savings in electricity over using the dryer

2. Energy Savings in electricity over using the dryer

3. Significantly less work at removing stains (the sun is a natural bleach)

4. Laundry off the line smells so fresh!

5. The sight of a fully loaded clothesline makes me smile

And the benefits are doubled by the fact that we cloth diaper and use the laundry more than the average disposable diapering family. There really isn't a comparison to a clothesline full of fresh, clean diapers!

I'm sure I'll be posting a cloth diaper clothesline photo for wordless Wednesday as soon as baby is born and we have laundry up!

When we moved here, we were lucky enough to have laundry posts already installed in the backyard. However, my husband has made and installed laundry posts in the past. He's a DIY carpentry guru and I couldn't tell you exactly how he made the posts, but... I watched him do it and it's almost identical to this tutorial I found by Krista on her blog: Life, In A Nutshell

Amazing Photo by Krista at Life, In A Nut Shell

The only big difference I found was that we cemented the post, which made the project run about $25 total.

It never fails, I have to replace the clothesline each year, regardless of the "quality" of the line we buy. So instead of buying vinyl coated wire and the hardware and spending 10 minutes installing it, we get 200ft of 1/4" All Purpose Clothesline from Lowes. 

It runs about $18-$20 each year. Yes, it sags a bit, but the great thing about a simply knotted clothesline is that it's easy to unknot and tighten without using any tools. I run a sudsy washcloth down the line to clean it once a week, which gets rid of collected dust and dirt.

And clothespins are cheap as well. This year I snagged a 100 ct package of wooden spring pins at Walmart for only $2. I call it a yearly expense because we always seem to lose or break a fair amount of pins. 

I honestly have started believing that birds or squirrels are stealing them. I'm really curious as to what they use them for. 

So for an initial cost of $25 and a yearly maintenance cost of $20-$22, I save energy and money in electricity!