Laundry Tips and Tricks

Laundry is one of my most hated household chores. There are 6 of us in the house, and the two youngest still have occasional potty accidents, so sometimes they can go through more than one outfit a day. The laundry can pile up very, very quickly. When it would get really out of control, we would spend a whole day doing load after load of laundry. We would get so fixated on washing the clothes, we wouldn’t be folding or putting the clothes away. Now instead of a huge mountain of dirty clothes, we would have a huge mountain of clean but wrinkled, and un-sorted clothes, which is better, I guess…sort of.

 

Staying on top of it all

When I started my One Month Challenge last month, I put doing a load of laundry on my daily task list. In order to make sure everybody has the right clothes when they need them, I went a step further and made a schedule based on what days the kids have or don’t have after school activities, so that their laundry gets done on a day that they are home after school to put it away.

For our house, this means:

Monday:  N

Tuesday: M and O-they share a room, a hamper, and often their clothes, so they share a laundry day too.

Wed: Linens

Thursday: L

Friday: Mom and Dad

Saturday: no laundry

Sunday: Catch up-for when there is an extra load or two that didn’t get done.

For the past month, this has worked really well. The older kids never run out of uniforms, we don’t run out of towels and Mike always has appropriate work clothes available. This system also makes the folding and putting away easier, since everything in the basket goes to the same place. My kids don’t have many white clothes, but what they do have, I tend to set aside to add to the larger whites load on Friday.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

To save money, I make my own laundry soap. It only takes me about 20 minutes to make a batch that lasts us about two months. That two month supply costs maybe $2.00. All of the ingredients are found in the laundry detergent aisle. Sometimes the washing soda and soap can be hard to find. I only know of one store in our area that carries washing soda, but they are also available online. I started with the recipe from LivingOnADime.com, but I have since altered it a little to work better for my kids’ stains.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

6 C      Water

½ bar   Fels Naptha soap, grated

½ C     Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda)

¾ C     Borax 

Heat water and grated soap in a large pan until the soap is fully dissolved. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Heat until powders are fully dissolved, stirring frequently. Keep a close eye on it because it tends to boil over (although, the spilled solution does a pretty good job of cleaning the stove top.) Once completely dissolved, boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat. The mixture should have a honey like consistency. Place one quart of hot water into a 3-5 gallon bucket. Add soap mixture, and then enough cold water to make 2 gallons. . (Before my first batch, I measured 2 gallons of water into my bucket, and marked the level with a permanent marker.)  Mix well. Let stand for 24 hours.* Solution will gel up.

To use, stir well and use ½ cup per load.

If it doesn’t reach honey consistency, or gel up, it will still work. It will not suds up.

*This detergent will separate, so it must be stirred before each use. Pour it into liquid detergent bottles before letting it stand, and then just shake it up before each use (Be sure to leave some space at the top for shaking.)

We saved ½ gallon plastic Pace picante sauce bottles to store ours in, any fairly thick plastic bottle with a handle will work fine.

Stain Removal

Speaking of stains, I don’t buy commercial stain treater anymore, so here are some things I use to deal with various stains on clothes:

SAFETY DISCLAIMER: Most people know not to mix bleach with ammonia, but it is also dangerous to mix bleach with vinegar and lemon juice, so do not add bleach to a load using any of those items. As a rule, do not mix bleach with anything but water.

I have not tried some of these tips, they are compiled from around the internet.

Ammonia is not recommended for very delicate fabrics or fabrics with latex in them, because it will dissolve the latex.

ALL PURPOSE wet a bar of Fels Naptha soap and rub the bar directly on the stain. This works particularly well on grease stains, and is very economical. One bar of soap has lasted me over a year.

BLOOD Hydrogen Peroxide or baking soda paste+

CAR GREASE dishwashing soap

CRAYON WD40 let sit for 3-5 min, Rinse, treat with dishwashing liquid, Rinse,  use stain pre-treater

GRASS Hydrogen Peroxide

GUM hot vinegar, set 1-2 min then scrape or freeze then chip off

INK Rubbing Alcohol or hairspray

RING AROUND THE COLLAR Rub shampoo into stain, launder as usual

SKUNK pre wash in skunk smell solution*, then launder as usual

SWEAT pre treat with white vinegar, or baking soda paste

            OLD-  1:1:1 solution of baking soda peroxide and water let sit for 30 min

                        1 Cup white vinegar in machine, soak 30 min

WAX scrape off excess wax  then pour boiling water over spot

+BAKING SODA PASTE 6Tbsp baking soda with ½ cup water

*SKUNK SMELL SOLUTION 2 cups hydrogen peroxide, 8 oz baking soda, a   couple of squirts dishwashing liquid and a gallon of water

To make clothes wash more easily, soak overnight in a 1 Tbsp Ammonia  to 1 Gal water or use ¼ cup Ammonia for a full washer.