Monday, October 5, 2009

Going Green

Though it's been a while, I decided to take a little time to talk about going green. I know everyone is doing it, but does anyone realize that by going green is basically the same as what our grandparents and great-grandparents were doing all the time?

The ReadyMop pads and cleaning solution I posted before is just one step in combining the old with the new. It also saves me alot of money since I don't buy the solution or pads anymore. The solution only costs me about $1 to make by the gallon and I use it more than just on the floor.

I keep looking around the internet for different ways to replace what I use with cost effective alternatives. I'm still currently for an alternative for the dishwasher, since the baking soda/borax mix that is currently out there just doesn't get the dishes clean enough for me. The best I have been able to come up with is a mix of the soda/borax with GV dishwasher powder. When I looked over the box, it has both of those ingrediants in it, but also emzynes that help remove the food. So I've been using that for my mix.

My newest love is the laundry soap recipe I found. It came from the Duggers' website (18 and counting, or is 19 and counting now?). Their recipe for the powdered laundry soap works wonders here, but I ended up making a few changes to it.

For one, I use Ivory Soap bars. And the best way to shred it is to open the bars up enough to let them dry out for a week (or longer) first, then use a cheese grater to grate them. Then I mix it all in a clean Ice Cream bucket and use a 1/8c coffee scoop per load. It hasn't built up on the clothes and they smell nice and clean when it's done. I actually had enough to fill a one gallon ice cream bucket using 4 bars of soap. And it cost less than $10 to get that much. Plus I still have some of the borax and washing soda left over for other things.

As I find more out there, I will post where I find them and what I think about how they work.

3 comments:

Leslie, The Cleaning Coach said...

If you are interested in a collection of recipes that will help you "go green" and save some green, you can check out my book: The Joy of Green Cleaning. Let me know if you are interested and I can send you a copy to review. I'd love your comments.

Anonymous said...

I guess you will want to put a twitter icon to your site. Just bookmarked this article, however I must do this by hand. Simply my advice.

just barb said...

yep, tried the Dugger recipe site and it made a bunch. One of my little cousins was moving in with 2-3 buddies and they needed ways to save money. My Aunt Mary got all the ingredients and I helped. LOL I think I would've chosen a different "flavor" but the boys liked it. I'm a little afraid that if their clothes were "too stinky . . ." ????
They all work in a dairy farm in NW AR ???? . . . I think I will hear something this next week