Laundry Soap

To follow in the foosteps of the last post, I decided to show everyone how to make their own laundry soap, nice of me I know. Like I said it's about convenience right, and making your own laundry soap is giving up your time to make the world a better place. The thing is it probably takes me less time and energy to make my own laundry soap than if I had to run out to the store and buy some. So I am creating a less harmful product to the environment and using less natural resources to do it.

Here is the recipe:

see how easy it is, it fits on the lid of the bucket that I keep the soap in. Okay I'll type it out:

• boil 4 cups of water


• grate a bar of soap (I use my cheese grater, it's just soap. I also use Ivory bar soap because my son and I have sensitive skin, basically whatever soap you use that's how your laundry will smell.)


• when the water boils mix in the grated soap until dissolved.


• take your bucket and pour in: 3 gallons of warm tap water (48 cups)


• 1 cup washing soda


• 1 cup Borax (both found at my local grocery store)


• and the dissolved soap mixture, stir well let set for 24 hours and your done.

this picture is right after I made a batch, it still needs to set. You see those little lumps perfectly fine, the finished product looks much like this just a little firmer. I use a 5 gallon bucket to store my soap, and a paint stirrer, my sister uses an old laundry detergent bottle and just shakes it up.

I do about 3 loads of laundry every single day. When I bought laundry soap it cost me anywhere from $9-$13 a week. I use my own soap and it lasts me between 2-3 weeks (1-2 cups of soap per load), it cost me for my initial investment:

(estimate)

1. 1 box of Borax -$4
2. 1 bag of washing soda- $3
3. 6 bars of Ivory- $6
4. 5 gallon bucket with lid- $4

grand total: $17, that's at least 6 batches of soap. Trust me it's worth a try, my family hasn't even noticed a difference. And like I said my son and I have sensitive skin, and we don't have any problems with it.

Living green vs. convenience

We are asked all the time 'how do you, a five person family with teenagers, live on one modest income?' Well... um, frugally, duh. I keep a strict budget and we follow it. For the most part, you have to give up, what some might call, luxuries. We were amazed at how rich we felt, having more free time. That was, with 3 teenagers, the thing we wanted the most. Time goes by fast, we wanted to enjoy as much as possible.

Well, how do you live green on one budget? I have been thinking about this question alot and the answer is really very simple. It's like going back in time. I remember when I was young we always hung our clothes out to dry, now it's a rarity and is considered 'being green'. We have been very fortunate and prosperous in the past years and virtually everyone has a dryer nowadays. So being green is really a question of how convenient do I want my life to be? Living on one income, I have a lot of time on my hands and a strict budget. This allows me to hang my laundry to dry, to garden, and bike to the farmer's market. All green things to do, but if you think about it ,that's the way life was way back when. A simple way of life is sometimes a green way of life as well. Being green is about responsibility, how will we leave this Earth for the next generation? Will we continue to ravage it until all of our natural resources are gone? Or is it time to give up some of our conveniences to try and save a little bit for our children and theirs?

I challenge you to try and give up just one convenience, and see how easy it is.

Recycle, stop using paper towels and buy some cloth napkins, can you ride your bike to work, the store? Borrow books from the library instead of buying them, stop junk mail from coming to your house, and if some sneaks in turn it over and use the back for your grocery lists. There are a million and one things you could do right now. What will you choose?

p.s. if you want a "convenient" way of getting rid of that junk mail you can pay greendimes to do it for you, $20 a year and they even plant some trees when you sign up.

A mouthful

This is an old post from a personal blog of mine, it was one of the posts that I have done over the years that made me think I should create a new blog on living green. Hope you like it.



I have recently begun buying the new earth-friendly cleaners you see hawked everywhere. I was surprised at how well some of them worked, and in the fact that they smell better than the older versions. I realized that I didn't know exactly which chemicals you should seek to avoid, so why was I buying these cleaners, hype? Anyways, I decided to go and find out exactly what I was avoiding and what nasty things would happen to me if I didn't. Avoid it that is.
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(Most of my information comes from a site called organicconsumers.com)

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You should avoid cleaners with ammonia, chlorine, and petroleum-based chemicals. All have been shown to contribute to respiratory irritation and headaches. They should not be used by people with asthma, lung, or heart problems.
Fragrances, one third of the substances used in the industry are toxic. Fragrances in our cleaners, on our bodies, keeping us healthy, clean, and smelling good. How ironic. In the fragrance industry chemical makeup is considered a trade secret and companies are not required to list their ingredients, they simply put fragrance. One third - toxic, poisonous is a synonym.
Diethanolamine (DEA) and triethanolamine (TEA) are sudsing agents found in detergents. These chemicals react with nitrites to form nitrosamines- carcinogen that readily penetrates the skin. They have low acute toxicity, but contribute to long term health effects like cancer and hormone disruption. That sounds like fun.
Another suspected carcinogen comes from ethoxylated alcohols also used in detergents. It has been known to show damage to the brain and nervous system.
For a really great detailed list use this link, kidsorganics.com
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Not only is it dangerous for our health but we our once again polluting our earth, from which we gather all sustenance. We are increasing air pollution, including indoor air pollution. We contaminate rivers, lakes, stream, and oceans. Destroying the delicate balance of the ecosystems. Some people want to say this is evolution, and quite frankly I agree we are evolving. But how do you want to evolve?
After they disappear down our drains most ingredients break down into harmless substances during treatment or soon after, sounds encouraging, right? However some do not. For instance alkyphenol ethoxylates (APE), which are key ingredients in detergent's effectiveness have been shown to mimic the estrogen hormone. Not only are they making the fish act weird, like male salmon producing female egg-yolk proteins, but they have serious side effects for us humans. They are one of those hormone disruptors, which have shown decreased sperm count and male birth defects, but let's not forget us women, they have been shown to make estrogen-sensitive breast cancer cells multiply in test tube studies. Back to the delicate balance of the ecosystem, phosphates, used in dish detergents, enter the waterways and act as a fertilizer. Which promotes the overgrowth of algae, which in turn depletes the oxygen supply, which tends to kill off fish and other organisms throwing off the natural balance of things. Which directly relates to us humans.
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I know, I know those environmentally friendly cleaners cost a fortune. You could get away with buying some of them, like me, but not all of them just too damn expensive. Well here are some options, try to find something nontoxic enough to warrant not having the following labels. Is that a double negative?

Danger/Poison- typically most hazardous
Warning- moderately hazardous
Caution- slightly toxic

Also keep in mind that all of this organic, environmentally friendly gibberish is a fairly new market and such claims are not always rigorously monitored. Such as a claim of non-toxic, this has no official definition. Organic in chemistry refers to chemicals that are carbon-based including some volatile organic compounds (VOC) that release harmful fumes and may cause brain damage or cancer. Bio-degradable is almost meaningless as most substances will eventually bio-degrade, try for something with a time limit like bio-degradable in 3-5 days. And there are vague terms like natural or eco-friendly, make them back it up with specific claims such as no phosphates, no solvents or plant-based. Then there is the good old-fashioned suggestion, make your own cleaners. I will admit that I have not tried this, but came across two sites that gave some good info, they are care2 and eartheasy . I can't wait to try them out.


*** authors update*** I have tried making some of the cleaners and found that they work almost as well as regular cleaners, but my whole house smelled like vinegar all the time, so next time I will invest in some of the oils to make the house smell a little nicer. ***

Here is a little homage to my grandma, whom I miss very much. When we were younger my grandmother used to dry out her plastic ziploc bags and we would always tease her about this. Saying, just throw them away and use a new one. She would always smile this secretive little smile and go about what she was doing. She grew up through the great depression. She remembered very vividly what it was like to not have enough, and was very frugal with things. What I am learning is that soon we will also have to live without some of our creature comforts, how long can we as a society continue to justify our habits? We can continue this way until we have depleted everything, or we can all pitch in a little now and try to conserve something. It may seem like you can never do enough to make a change, but what if everyone did a little, wouldn't that equal a lot?
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To my grandma- I've got a plastic bag drying on my counter, I love you.

Reuse

Reuse, to me, means simply to recycle. I can almost guarantee that you follow this practice. Everyone has something they have taken and reused. Don't believe me, think on plastic bags, are they in your bathroom garbage can, holding your library books, given to a friend with an item you had for her? To reuse something is a cinch, you just use it again. You can also repurpose something, take it from its old life and turn it into something new. Aahh, a little more complicated. To repurpose something takes a tiny bit of imagination, and a small amount of creativity. I have a hard time throwing anything away, ask my minimalist husband. I always think "but maybe I could use that one day...."







a.) a bowling bag that I use for a carry all b.) soda pop bottles that make a nice array of vases c.) a belt from a pair of my daughter's pants, cut in two, to hold some curtains back.


Some more project ideas we have created here at my house using repurposing:

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I had an old pillowcase from my grandmother, it had such a funky print. I have sewn and sewn this thing, finally I had to admit it's life as a pillowcase just had to be over. Inspiration struck, I needed to recover some old stools, the pillowcase print happened to match the walls. Voila, now it lives on as fashionable stool covers.
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I once had an entire pocket rip off the side of some cargo pants. I took the pocket and hung it on a corkboard, we kept pens in it. You could put love notes, paper clips, or keys in it.
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Here's an easy one. Spaghetti sauce jars. They are big wide-mouthed jars with dependable lids. You can use these for all sorts of things. They can hold money, nails, tacks, any kind of odds and ends. We use them as drinking glasses (I have kids, I gave up the idea of having beautiful sets of matched dishware long, long ago.), vases, containers for leftovers. The only limit for an item like this is your imagination.
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Repurposing and reusing items does not have to mean that they will look like garbage. You can slap some paint on an old table and you have a new one. You can dress up your spaghetti jars with a glue gun, cardstock paper, and a sharpie. Reuse ribbons and wrapping paper. Magazine ads have wonderful pictures. (I make a calendar for my honey every year out of ads I collage together.) Imagination is the key and even if you feel that you have little or no imagination, the internet is the most useful resource we have nowadays, use it. You can find a "recipe" for any craft project you want.

There are lots of things out there that you can take and make into something useful and needed. List some items for me, and I will try my best to help you figure out a way to reuse them.

Composting

From dictionary.com  
compost–noun
1.a mixture of various decaying organic substances, as dead leaves or manure, used for fertilizing soil.

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Composting seems like a dirty subject to tackle so quickly. My personal feelings are recycling and composting are some of the easiest things we can all do to help our planet. I am really into gardening, so I looked into composting for this reason, a cheap alternative to purchasing compost. I also homeschool my son and we have created a small compost system for a science project, so that he would understand what we were doing with the big garbage can in our backyard. You can compost at virtually any size and for whatever reason you choose.

Here is what we did:

I had an old garbage can that I placed in the farthest corner of our back yard. My kids are huge ice cream eaters, I buy them the giant 1 gallon buckets with a lid and a handle. When they finish the ice cream I clean them out and let them dry, then I leave them in a convenient place in the kitchen. We use these small bins whenever we make a salad, eggs, empty the coffemaker, etc. Then empty them into the large bin out back at a later time. Now I know what you are thinking --"Geez, with all that garbage how do you stand the smell?" Actually, as long as the lid is on tight on the bins in our home there really is no smell. There are plenty of products that you can purchase to offset the smell if you feel the need to, but honestly we don't have a problem with it.

It really is that simple, but there are a few things you should remember:

• Composting is best comprised of 1/3 green materials, 2/3 brown materials.
• Brown materials can be anything from newspapers to yard waste. Newspapers work best if torn into strips and you can't use the glossy pages. Even things like the cardboard paper tubes in paper towel rolls, and paper towels themselves can be considered brown materials. Don't use weeds or plants that you don't want in your yard next year. Also watch out for anything chemically treated, you don't want those chemicals in your natural compost.
• Green materials are basically food scraps. Use just about anything, except dairy, meat, and bones.
• Don't ever put pet feces in with your compost.

The way that I compost is the 'lazy' way. I just dump all my materials on top and let nature do its trick, but it takes a long time. (When I am ready to use my compost I must retrieve it from the bottom of the pile. I have plans to cut a small door into the bottom of my can so that I don't have to dump the whole thing over every time I want compost.) Now you can follow in my shoes, or use these proactive ways to get that compost going.

• Buy some red wriggler worms. They will eat all the materials and create good dirt for you.
• Turn your compost, I do this every once in a while, with a shovel. You can also buy bins, or make bins with turning devices in the midst of them.
• Chop your materials up, use a lawnmower without the bagging device, or buy a special lawnmower that does this for you.
• Don't use a bin at all, if you have a large enough area you can just wall off a spot of land and throw all your materials there. Turning is much easier without the confines of a bin.

There are tons of products and information out there. Here are a few links to get you started:

• http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/composting/
• http://www.howtocompost.org/
• http://www.composters.com/

Happy Composting!

Recycling seems pretty straight forward, but can be, if you want it to be, a tiny bit complicated. Right?

Here are just the basics.


Recycling is really easy to start. Call your local waste management company and request some bins, they should either deliver them to you or you can pick them up. While you're at it, do your neighbors need bins? Try ordering for them, you might be surprised that some companies will let you do this.




We started recycling years ago, and at first there was a whole lot of garbage picking. After a while though it seems everyone's gotten the hang of it, even most of our familiar houseguests. After you receive your bins, designate a spot near your garbage to place all recycling. We chose a counter over our can. To make it easy to sort, we taped color-coded paper that coordinated with each colored bin onto the counter, and place the items there. Then as recyclables accumulate we place them in the larger bins out in our garage. Easy as cheese.
Some other ideas would be to place hooks with color coded bags, get some small colored bins, or recycle: grab some old shoe boxes, paint, and voila-- mini recycling bins to be emptied at a later time.



Just remember a few key things:

1. Contact your county and find out what is and isn't recyclable.
2. Empty and rinse out all containers.
3. Remove and discard all caps and straws.
4. Try and flatten any boxes.
5. Junk mail, lightbulbs, broken dishes, and plastic bags are usually not allowed.
6. Check your grocery store most of them have a place you can recycle plastic bags.
7. Don't forget that reusing is the best form of recycling.

Have fun, and you wil be amazed at how much there is to recycle, you just might have to request some more bins.