Quick Fix Idea

Confession! I am addicted to Pinterest. Haven't heard of it? Well, stop reading this silly blog and go find out. Once you have extricated yourself from your new obsession... Welcome back.

I am actually putting a lot of the ideas I've found on Pinterest to work in my house. Some ideas are just fun to daydream about, but when my husband approached me on how to wash his expensive sleeping bag, I ran upstairs and went to my "Going Green" board on Pinterest. I knew I had seen something about how to freshen laundry...

Ahh, yes. The reusable dryer sheet. In that case, the gal had soaked a dish towel in fabric softener, dried it completely, and then tossed it in with her laundry - load after load! She claimed it saved her from buying dryer sheets - same fresh fragrance without all of the cost.

So, what did this little housewife do? I thought, "I could do this!" I read the care instructions on the sleeping bag. Time and money were not on our side to have this sucker dry cleaned or taken to a big laundry mat, so I looked around our laundry room for inspiration.

I found these:

Woolite (I love it for washing delicates), an old rag, and a tupperware container (from the kitchen). So, armed with these items and ingenuity, I made my own dryer sheet/Dryel sheet.

I covered the rag with enough Woolite for it to be damp, but not soaked (again, time was against us). I let it air dry overnight. Then, I simply tossed the sleeping bag into the dryer with the Woolite-fresh rag and PRESTO! An hour later we had a clean-smelling sleeping bag. We even went a step further and hung the sleeping bag inside out on our patio. Now my husband will have the least man-smelly sleeping bag on the boat. Granted, I would love to have that thing clean with good ol' soap and water, but that will have to wait. At least it smells more clean and fresh!

Going Green: Laundry Detergent

The Preston household is making a commitment to "go green." We want to use more natural, organic, local, and earth-friendly products and food in our home. This is a huge commitment - it takes both time and money. However, in the long run, it makes us feel healthy and good about how we run our home. One of our first attempts at "going green" is laundry detergent. Now, if you are married to man like my husband, he'll go through three outfits a day. Plus, as a military man who works on a ship all day, he comes home covered in grease, oil, and dirt. Laundry time is ALL THE TIME. So, to cut down on our costs, waste, and putting chemicals back into the water, we decided to use an all-natural laundry detergent.

Here's the recipe.

You'll need:

Borax (about $4), Washing Soda (about $3), and Castille soap ($2.50 for 3 bars).

First, in a medium size bowl, add 1 cup Borax:

And 1 cup Washing Soda:

And 1 ENTIRE bar of Castille soap - grated.

It doesn't hurt to have a handsome husband help with the grating, either. He loves being involved! 

Mix all 3 ingredients together and you're done!

Here's the end product. If you are like me, and all your appropriately sized tupperware is holding leftovers in your fridge, just grab a plastic bag. 

Use about 1/4 cup per load. This recipe will do about 15-20 loads.

If you have a particularly oily or greasy load of laundry (like I do a few times a week!), just add a drizzle of your regular dishwashing detergent. It will pull out all the grease! 

I washed our first load with this detergent and it worked perfectly. Enjoy!