Make Your Own Laundry Soap (and soap someday?)

In my little quest to use less toxins AND spend less money I came across the idea of making one's own laundry soap. I had intriguing images of myself slaving away over a hot stove and sprinkling in bits of fairy dust only to have a poor working detergent and irritable kids with scratchy skin. Not that I'm a pessimist... but lets face it, do-it-yourself generally= more work. And some more natural products are also less effective.

But nothing ventured nothing gained, right? And thus began my search for the perfect recipe and the washing of clothes to test said recipe. After some fun adventures (sadly none involved fairy dust), I present to you what I consider to be a laundry soap that is not only easy to make and works super- it is also far less expensive than it's pre-made counterpart.

First you need a food processor. It's either that or spend a lot of time grating (not as much fun or as easy... obviously!) If you have a food processor than chop a fels-naptha bar into chunks and drop it in the food processor. Process the crap out of it until it's all about the size of small gravel. Very small gravel. It doesn't take too long. If you are grating then use a zest grater and grate that bar!

here's what the final product should look like

Add 1 cup of washing soda and 1/2 cup of borax. Mix it all up good and technically you've made it!

If you're like myself and would appreciate some scent then choose your favorite essential oil and add a few drops then mix very well.

A large load will need about 1 tablespoon of detergent- if its a super nasty bunch of clothes then go ahead and double that.

Personally, I found it to be fun to put in a pretty container with a tablespoon measure in the laundry room. No more giant ugly bins of detergent! You can make big batches ahead and only have the thrill of making the detergent a few times each year.

Store it with the measuring spoon

Another of my concerns had been that the ingredients would be expensive or difficult to find. I'll be honest here: I'd never heard of washing soda or fals-naptha. But here's the cool part: I found all three nestled together in the laundry soap aisle at Walmart. They were way cheaper than anything else in that aisle but you've got to have a hawk eye- they do like to hide the less expensive products  where our eyes aren't drawn to!

So now we've all got an exciting, fun new recipe to try! Next I am planning to tackle the making of soaps. I've found so many soap making recipes online and am getting ready to dive in and start trying them out. One concern I have is that all the recipes require a person to use PROTECTIVE GEAR in the making of it! Since I'm trying to get away from harsh, abrasive things, this seems counter productive. But so far I've yet to find a recipe that only has ingredients that are safe. Anyone have any advice or favorite recipes?

Testing the Water

I decided it was time to dip my toes into the dating scene and see how the water felt. Results? The water is murky, slimy, and (I am quite certain) pure poison. Okay, I am sure that there are good men out there. However, they appear to be hiding from me and quite frankly, I'm not sure I have it in me to go out hunting for them!



Two blind dates- one of which ended with my delightful date in a drunken stupor and the other which ended as abruptly as I could manage- and him asking me for a ride him.... I refuse to accept any and all blind dates in the future!
Than there was a guy who was so handsome... I could have just looked at him all day. Exactly my sort of guy appearance-wise! Until he opened his mouth. So incredibly boring that I could not bear to continue any sort of relationship.

I suppose it says something about me that the only guy I continue to hold out any hope on is one who has some fairly major mental health issues- and chooses not to medicate. He's unique and keeps me guessing. And most of the time I wonder what on earth I'm doing with him... until out of nowhere an incredibly intelligent conversation will emerge or he will do something so sweet it leaves me all melty. He also scores points for constantly wanting to be moving (a result of his mental health issues) and finding carpentry and repairs to be fun. He would be quite the handy man to have around! Not to mention his hunting and fishing skills. And we share remarkably similar goals for the future. We're just working on building a friendship at this point and that sure works for me.

I'd really thought a man from my past would be THE one. But despite what he says, his lack of active interest tells me he is not. If he was then he would at least be communicating in some manner. Honestly that is the biggest sadness- but also a positive thing to finally know. To start actively and aggressively eradicating those hopes and thoughts that involved him. It will take time but I need to adjust my view of him from being a potential mate to just friendship.

All in all, this dating game may be a bit over my head still. And the really cool thing is that I'm okay with that. I'm fairly content being single and I choose not to "settle".