More Homemade Cleaners

Homemade Scouring Powder

1 cup Baking Soda

1/4 cup Borax

1/4 cup Super Washing Soda

Mix well and put in a shaker container.

 

Mildew Prevention Spray

Mix equal amounts of vinegar and water in a spray bottle. Or several drops of Tea Tree Oil and water in a spray bottle.

 

Baby Wipes

1 roll Bounty paper towels (brand specific here due to the durability)

cut roll in half and remove cardboard tube. Place in a plastic container with a tight fitting lid.

2 tablespoons baby oil

2 tablespoons baby bath

2 cups water

Mix well and pour over paper towels, let sit at least an hour for towels to absorb all the liquid. Pull towels up from the center.

Liquid Laundry Soap

With the price of just about everything on its’ way up, I have found a way for some thing to go down. This recipe for liquid laundry soap is easy to make and will give you approximately 10 gallons for about 4 cents a load.

This soap smells great, but don’t expect to see soap suds. Trust me, your laundry will get clean without them!

1 bar Fels Naptha, grated

1 cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

1/2 cup borax

In a large sauce pan add 4 cups hot water to grated soap. Stir over medium/low heat until melted and dissolved.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot water. Add melted soap mixture super washing soda and borax. Stir to dissolve. Top off with hot water. Cool overnight. Mixture will have thickened/jelled. Stir to break up. Fill empty soap bottle half way with the mixture and add hot water to fill. Use 5/8 cup for top loading machine and 1/4 cup for a front loader.

Just give the bottle a shake before each use.

I found all the ingredients at Wal-Mart.

I have been using this for a while and really like the way it cleans. You just have to get passed the no suds thing. All those little bubbles don’t really do anything anyway.

 

Homemade Fabric Softener

1 cup baking soda

2 cups hot water

Stir until well mixed, it will not fully dissolve.

Add:

1 cup white vinegar

The mixture will bubble and fizz. Stir well.

That is it.  You have now made homemade fabric softener for pennies on the dollar.

Add ¼ cup to your rinse cycle.  You can even put it in a Downy ball if you’re like me and never remember to add anything to the rinse cycle.  It’s more than the line for the Downy ball, though – so until you learn how much it is, go ahead and measure the ¼ cup.

Store in an empty fabric softener bottle, shake well before using.

January

With mornings of frost-feathered trees seen through ice-etched window panes, the bitter cold of January days drives me indoors to the warmth of the wood stove. By the back door sunlight flashes from the icicle that hangs above the rain barrel. Flocks of starlings gather in the hackberry tree to feed on the remaining berries, and crows search the frozen cornfields for anything they may have over looked in times of greater abundance.
Beneath the bird feeder, the tracks of juncos and chickadees, like cuinform writing on the snow covered ground, are thank you notes for a handful of seeds.
In the woodland garden the black berry clusters of false Solomon’s seal nod above the snow-covered ground, and the bright red fruit of jack-in-the-pulpit reward field mice for dispersing their seeds.
Yet in this seeming lifelessness of the frozen world there are signs of new life. The buds of oak and maple are begining to swell, and in the herb garden, under the snow, the large and waxy white flowers of white hellebore are begining to open.
As the lengthening days of January draw to a close, with melancholy sunsets that vare reflected on the glazed surface of the snow, I enjoy the warmth and comfort of the house. The strange perfume of the paper-white narcissus blooming on the window sill mingles with the scent of wood smoke, hinting at the myriad of flowers that even now beneath the frozen crust of earth are beginning to stir.