Clean Clothes...

A few months back I caught an episode of TLC's 18kids and Counting, where the family shared their recipe for making their own laundry soap. They do this to surprise surprise save some money. Intrigued by the idea and by the fact that most if not all homemade detergent recipes are perfume free (you all know my sensitive skin issues) I decided to look into making my own. I did a little research online and found several websites with different variations on the recipe. The basic ingredients are a bar of scent free soap, borax, and washing soda. So far we've only tried one version and it seems to be working. It takes a little work on your part to make the detergent mix, but then it last for a long time. From what I've read most detergents end up coasting you around 45cents per load where in the end this concoction will cost you only pennies per load. Sounds good to me! and like I said Bonus it is perfume free which is great for my sensitive skin that tends to break out with most detergents. I also read somewhere that you really do not need detergent to clean your clothes. Apparently just agitation will clean them, but personally I prefer to use a little soap to ensure my things get nice and clean. When it comes to laundry we also avoid using the dryer. This saves us money (we live in an apartment, so you pay per load) and cuts down on the energy bill. We do this for several other reason as well. Our dryer is terrible it only partially dries most clothes and we live in Denver which has a very dry climate (our clothes air dry in almost no time). When we move I'm really going to miss that. I'll probably still hang things to dry though, because there just something nice about clothes that are dried in the fresh air.