Thursday, February 16, 2012

Squeaky Clean

This is a good post. You’ll want to “Pin” it. ha.

I went old school, like really old school, and made laundry detergent. Well, my friend Joy and I did it together. But I mostly snapped pictures and held the Chunk and she did all of the labor intensive work. So step one in making laundry detergent is to find a friend who will do all of the man power for you.

Here are our ingredients:

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This is Joy. She’s a mom to 4 kids.

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The spaghetti scooper worked really well to mix all the powders together.

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The Borax blew everywhere when pouring out. Just a friendly FYI.

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Here’s our final product. This batch made a one gallon container plus a 2 quart container.

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The recipe we used was:

1- 4 pound box Borax

1- 4 pound box Washing Sodat

2 Fels Naptha Bars- grated

2 pounds of Baking Soda (Because we have hard water.)

Mix all of the ingredients and store in an air tight container.

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My second ooh and ahh moment came from this tip.

When trying to get all of the grime off of your stove top accessories, pour ammonia into a gallon sized baggie, zip tight, and let sit over night. This worked amazing. I guess it’s the fumes that takes off all of the yuckiness.

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Top grate yucky, bottom grate clean.

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Top grate yucky, bottom grate clean.

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Top grate clean, bottom grate yucky.

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Since I did this in 2 batches to show the before and after, I have a few tips.

1. Use 1/2 cup ammonia in a freezer gallon sized baggie. That ammonia is some potent stuff.

2. Put on a cookie sheet just in case it leaks.

3. My first 2 sat in the baggies for about 20 hours and came out a whole lot easier to rinse off than my second 2 that were left in the baggies for only 8 hours.

4. After you take them out of the baggies, rinse under hot hot water, most of the grime will fall right off.  For the stuff that doesn’t, I got a scrubby that I scrubbed all over the grate. Not hard and it didn’t take much longer than washing a regular dish. I threw it away afterward because it was filled with greasy grossness.

 

And that is two steps to a squeaky clean house.

5 comments:

Nicolle said...

I thought about making my own laundry detergent so many times. I hear it's a really huge cost savings too?! I just might do it now.

jen@odbt said...

Great tips! I can never get my stove top grates clean...

Megan said...

I am super impressed! How fun to have a friend that will do all those 'let's make laundry detergent' ideas with you! Are you on Pinterest?

Nancy said...

Well look at you!!! That is awesome. My stove top is pretty bad at this moment. Definitely in need of some TLC. :)

Amber said...

Ok so where did you get the container you put the laundry soap in?? I need a few of those?? Text me...pretty please!!