The Laundry Limbo

Laundry is one of the biggest problems in housework. I have heard it called "Mount Never Rest." and that discribes it in most homes.

I have recently discovered, through some ample blog reading, you know, while I should have been folding laundry, a system that really works, even with my large family.

ToxicFree Kitchen 3

And let the chemistry begin! :-D

I began to feel overwhelmed with all the different cleaners that needed to be figured out and made, so I decided to just change one room at a time. The Laundry room was the natural first step, since

1. I've used vinegar instead of fabric softener for years. Hubby is allergic to fabric softeners. Vinegar is on the opposite side of the PH scale from the detergents we use, so it neutralizes them and they rinse out. (Static cling and gray clothes are generally caused by the soaps/detergents not rinsing.) Fabric softeners work by coating the fibers with a thin coat of wax. This is NOT a good thing for towels and cloth diapers!
2. I have just used plain ole' detergent for my spotter for some time, so that's already gone.
3. I don't iron, so no need for the products associated with that.

This really just left the laundry soap itself.

I looked around and realized I had nearly everything on the "Buy 5" list at MomsAware already. A little research told me it might work OK to substitute baking soda for washing soda if I triple the amount in the recipe. So I used:

• 1 cup Borax
• 3 cups baking soda
• 1 bar grated Ivory soap (which I found last week at the case sale at our local grocery store for about $.30 a bar:-). This is one soap I KNOW we aren't allergic to.

I added 3 Tablespoons to each load of laundry (to account for the increased volume of the baking soda.) Just finished up the first batch of soap yesterday. Results:

1. Clothes look just as clean.
2. Clothes are softer! A little looking at facebook tells me this is a normal result. Seems it's the detergents not washing out that make the clothes stiff in the first place, which we "fix" by adding fabric softeners. Two products that have to be bought.
3. I think it will be cheaper. Mom's Aware say they did the math and detergents cost $.23-25 per load (plus FS), while this mix costs about $.11. Now, I think I have seen generic detergents for $.11 a load (according to the stores shelf label), but that was not HE soap for high efficiency machines. 

(Yes, we have a HE machine. Our septic is a bit overwhelmed due to the size of our family combined with clay soil, so we really need the lower-water machines. I LOVE this type of machine. I HATE the Bosch brand mine is. The minute it wears out enough I can, I am getting a Whirlpool Duet!

Our dryer of 10 odd years just wore out. It is only the second dryer we have had in 28 years of marriage. These Whirlpools have been total workhorses! [and, no, the Whirlpool company isn't paying me:-D] So I recently got a brand-new dryer. I did a lot of research and settled on the cheapest Whirlpool Duet [about $700]. This was the cheapest type of dryer with the lowest operating costs. It has a sensor in the drum that tells when the clothes are dry, so there is no over or under drying. It is taking about half the time my old dryer took. And the alarms are musical to boot!) 

Anyway, the laundry experiment seems to be a success! I will order some washing soda from Amazon, since I can't find it at any stores here. A whole $10/3 lb box, free shipping. Not bad at all.

Have any of you experimented with natural cleaners of any type? I am thinking of tackling the shower next (shampoo and conditioner are WAY too expensive, but we have 6 heads of long blonde hair in our house, so it's kind of scary). Any ideas?

Doing the Laundry- A Primer

Note to Moms: I have made this thorough enough to cover every aspect of doing the laundry.

You will most likely want to assign more than one child to this job. For example:

·        one child can gather up all the dirty laundry every day

·        a different child runs the machines

·        a third child folds the towels and sheets.