The Duggar’s aren’t the only family who makes their own laundry detergent; years ago, I did too! It’s really more of a gel-like consistency. Here’s my recipe.

Traci’s Homemade Laundry Detergent

3 cups Fels Naptha Bar Soap, grated
2 cups Borax (*I actually liked to use Biz better than Borax)
8 cups hot water
3 teaspoons essential oil of your choice (lavender, peppermint, etc..)

Heat soap, borax and water slowly in a large pot, until the mixture is clear. Let is cool; then stir in the essential oil and stirring well. Pour into a container with a tight-fitting lid and use 1 cup of gel per load, make sure the gel is dissolved before adding clothes.

*Note:  My husband reminded me that my original recipe used Washing Soda.  It did, however, when I started using the Biz either alone, or along with the Borax, I found I got better results. Just thought I would add this note, as I know there are a lot of laundry detergent recipes on the web and almost all of them call for washing soda.  Mine is unique, especially with the use of Biz.   However, this recipe is very flexible, and you could certainly add in the Washing Soda to this recipe, if you feel you needed extra cleaning power.

Fabric Softener
Add 1/2 – 3/4 cup white vinegar in your fabric softener dispenser in your washing machine, or to a Downey Fabric Softener Ball.

Here’s a good book for more information on living with less toxins in the home.

Better Basics for the Home

My Mark had to return to work yesterday, but my self-imposed vacation continues this week. Although Mark is taking Friday, Saturday and Sunday off for this coming weekend; so we’ll jump back into the fun for the long weekend. Until then, I am working on organizing and cleaning the house. I did my bedroom closet yesterday. It was a pitiful mess, and so I pulled everything out, sorted, folded, hung and organized the whole thing. I also got all the laundry done. I feel much better now. Today I need to clean bathrooms and sweep/mop floors.

It’s supposed to be hot and humid again today. We are really beginning to feel that our a/c is not working properly. We had someone come out and give us an estimate on replacing our furnace (which went out completely in March) and a/c units. While here, the repair guy charged our a/c, as it was 3 pounds low on freon. That helped immensely, for the first day, and decreasingly each day since. Now we’re at the point that yesterday (which was hot and very humid) showed my weatherbug telling me it was 83 degrees outside and the thermostat inside was telling me it was 81 degrees. The only thing that kept me from opening all the windows and turning on the attic fan was that it was less humid in here than outside. But still….. it was not pleasant. I love my air conditioning and make no excuses for it. I’m a wimp.

So today, Mark is going to buy a free-standing room air conditioner for our bedroom (we have odd side-cranking windows, so a window unit won’t work). We have the same thing upstairs in the girls’ bedroom and it works beautifully. Even though we are also calling today to get us on the schedule for replacing the furnace and air conditioner, I believe we could still use this new free-standing unit. I like it cold enough to see ice hanging from the ceiling (remember, I’m in menopause); so to avoid burning up a brand new air conditioning system – we’ll use this room one to help ease its burden.

Today was the day to re-arrange and clean my office. Since Mark bought me a brand spankin’ new vacuum cleaner the other day, I thought I would see if I could break it by vacuuming up copious amounts of dog hair out of my office carpet (the carpet is eventually going to be replaced with laminate, but until then – we torture vacuums).

The biggest issue I had been facing with my office now occupying the extra main-floor bedroom, was the addition of the six dog crates into the room. My dogs spend their day with me, as I work – and that was a great setup, when I had my office in its original location downstairs. Then we decided to dog-proof that room and create a ‘dog room’ with a dog door and access to their fenced outside potty area. So the dogs got my office for their bedroom, and my office moved to the downstairs family room. The dogs could still spend the day with me, and be close to their outdoor access. This worked well, until I realized how much time I had to spend running upstairs to switch laundry, cook, tend to children, etc… and so I decided to take the ‘guest room’ and convert that into my new office. I like the new location, but I have less square footage than either of my previous two office locations. To say it was cramped, would be an understatement. Oh, and did I mention, this office also serves as my sewing/craft room. Yeah – it’s a multi-tasking room and it was a mess.

I’ll will spare you any before pictures. It was too horrid to share; but here are the after photos.

This first photo shows my computer desk, stacked drawers and the folding table I added to hold the homeschooling materials.

A better view of the homeschooling center, and that white cabinet to the left, is my sewing & serger machine cabinet.

And finally, a view of the newly stacked dog crates. I did not have them stacked before, so you can imagine the floor space they took. Why the dog crates, you may ask… well, I have one 5 month old puppy and another that turned 1 year old today (Happy Birthday Henry!), and they are not reliably housebroken. Also, I have gotten four new dogs since Christmas 2007, so they have not yet proven themselves to all be 100% trustworthy in the housebreaking department: so we have scheduled potty times, play times and then crate times to avoid accidents in the house. If I can’t watch them 100% at that moment, then I crate them. This also avoids puppies chewing on furniture, power cords, etc…. So it’s an all-around training method that works well. In case you were wondering: the dogs do not spend their entire day and night crated! They get at least 2 hours every day outside running and playing, in addition to supervised time roaming around the house and laying on my lap, at my feet, on the couch, in my office chair, etc… At night, the office becomes the dogs’ bedroom. It works for us. The stacking (and yes, they are tethered/anchored together to avoid the top one from falling off), freed up some floor space – which I desperately needed.

Next phase of the home office project will be painting the walls, installing new laminate flooring and overhead storage cabinets, and cleaning out and organizing the large closet in this room and installing an organizer system. It will definitely be a large project, but will be awesome when it’s finished.