Saturday, March 2, 2013

Airing Our Dirty Laundry

It's no secret the Mack-ly Family has a lot of dirty laundry. We've been dealing with it for years. It's a never ending battle. Sometimes, dare I say, an emotional roller coaster.

But a few months back Hubs and I got a small reprieve at this Wardrobe Mountain we hold behind these four walls of our house. 

Hubs set out to save a little dough and, ironically, in doing so, the Dirty Laundry seems less like that huge mountain we scale every day. It's that satisfaction of knowing we're making progress while saving that gives a little crooked smile with every load.

The Google produces so many recipes for your own homemade laundry detergent your head spins like the spin cycle. Hubs settled on a simple one (that ends up almost all on the same store shelf in the local Wally World) and made a few minor adjustments based on his liking. With each next batch I'll be altering between lavender, tropical, fresh spring, and maybe even a baby scent.

The recipe claims to be a 6 month supply for a "normal family of four." (Let me know if you personally know one, I don't know what that is myself) 

So Hubs bought these...

















And mixed it like this...

And then I rationed it like this...

















This bottle here is 30 loads. It only takes about two tablespoons per load. In fact, the Oxy scoop is what we use and that's a smidge less than two tablespoons. The rest of the batch is in a sterlite container on the shelf in the laundry room. The batch made holds 7.5 of these! That works out to 225 loads.

Hubs made this batch at the end of December. We're now two months later and have not used a third of the container (which is where we expected to be). The entire container cost us less than 25 buckeroos! ELEVEN CENTS per load! ELEVEN! 

In comparison, those name brands (like Tyd, A&H & Gane, and Awl) come in at 34cents, 28cents, and 20cents. Whoa! Big difference, wouldn't you say? 

I'm a picky laundry gal and had my doubts, but this recipe is great. The clothes don't smell musty, dingy, dirty, or overly perfumy. They come out clean and fresh. And I, for one, am happy at the cost!

Let me know if need us to make YOU a batch.


1 comment:

  1. ::thumbs up:: I've been making ours for a while because of the sensitive skin in my house. I love how much I save. Love. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Ahem, did you get that? ;)

    Miss you. Love you. Need to hug you soon.

    ReplyDelete