Hippie laundry detergent

I hopped on the DIY wagon about a decade ago when I started living by myself and had taken to extreme budgeting techniques. It wasn't that I was living on pennies - I just liked to see how far I could go before people thought I was a little nuts. Usually, it was about making food from scratch, and it ultimately meant that I wasn't saving all that much money, but I was eating food that was much better for me and so I splurged on the good ingredients. I often find myself spending too much time in the grocery store pondering whether to go home and make granola, or English muffins, or pita bread, or....just buy the packaged stuff. Probably half the time I ending going the DIY route, but the other half of the time I tell myself to get a life.

With cleaning products, DIY has been hit-or-miss with me, causing me to wonder if it's really worth it because you can buy some decent stuff without all the harsh chemicals. But, for once, this is an opportunity to save money because as millions of people know, you can do pretty much anything with baking soda and vinegar.  I've used baking soda and vinegar with a variety of other ingredients like Borax and essential oils for a couple years now for sinks, toilets, showers and whatever else, and find that while it does take a little more work, not having to smell ammonia or bleach makes it worth it.

My latest DIY project was laundry detergent. I didn't think it would work that well, but I knew it would be cheap, so I didn't have much to lose. Except for the clothes I could potentially ruin. There was that. So I started by laundering my cleaning rags. Those came out smelling pepperminty and fresh, so I kept going and washed my next loads. I'm now a hippie-laundry-detergent believer.

In case you're interested in creating your own mixture, the one I use is simple, which you can double, triple, or open up a factory and quadruple:

1 5-oz. bar of castille soap (I love Dr. Bronner's peppermint and/or lavender - or a combo of both)
4 c. baking soda
3 c. washing soda (I find this at Ace Hardware store in the laundry section)

Grate the bar of soap with a box grater. This is fun because it feels wrong. But then you can just wash it quickly under warm water because there's already soap on it! Genius.

Once the soap is grated, find a large container and dump everything in. Stir it, shake it, dance with it, whatever you need to do to get it well mixed.

I use 2 T. per load. Doesn't matter if you're washing with hot or cold, or with a front- or top-loading washing machine.

Enjoy your clean clothes, you hippie!

(In case you need that recipe again...I usually do)