Soap Stars: Local Soap – where do you buy yours?

It makes me a little crazy when folks who want to go green with their household cleaners and body care products tell me there is nothing available to them. Here in Victoria, we have many local soap specialists who create safe and effective products that are 100% natural and good for both the body and the earth.

What I do understand though is the notion that the green cleaners in your average shopping aisle might not be all they seem. Green washing was a term that was explained to me by local Victoria cleaners Green Wheel Cleaners (see article here) and is a marketing term given to products that bombard us with all the right words ‘natural’, ‘green’, ‘eco friendly’, whilst really being anything but.

This is where the smaller health focused soap and cleaning product stores step in.

I was recently in a local health food store that was selling Soap Works products. I found about 30 bars of soap each for just over $2. I felt like I’d struck gold – each bar was gluten free (their oatmeal and goat milk soaps are not) and each was aimed at a specific skin type. I wanted to buy a bar for each of my friends I was so thrilled, but that’s like going into the giant dollar store… before you know it you’re spending $50 and waved bye-bye to any hope of thriftiness. I just chose two bars that I thought would work for my family. These were Sea Kelp and Bee Pollen, both all round skincare soaps. It’s true I’m easily excited by new discoveries, but these soaps are by far the best, most effective and gentlest soaps I’ve used. Take a look at their website puresoapworks for a list of all their soaps.

The Soap Works, like many specialist soap stores was created to find a solution to sensitive skin. Based in Toronto, this soap is available all over Canada and also online – their site will give you a list of where to buy near you.

Here in Victoria we also have The Soap Exchange. I reviewed their hair care products for VictoriaMom.ca - click link for article. The Soap Exchange supplies 100% biodegradable products for the body and home. As well as having a store, they also distribute their wares all over B.C. They offer reusable packaging making them even greener. If I could have a dollar for every time a fellow mom recommended a cleaning product from The Soap Exchange, I probably could buy that bar of soap for each of my Facebook friends.

The products I hear about the most are for carpets. That’s because us moms are forever worrying about our dirty carpets and the horrifically toxic products we’re meant to clean them with. Their Carpet Clean is a fantastically tough product whilst still being gentle on the environment and their Enzymes product is one of the best odour eaters on the market, great if you have potty training age kids like I do and/or pets.

For those of you not local to B.C., there is The Rocky Mountain Soap Company, a chain of natural soap selling stores that you can find all across Canada. For a list of their stores, see our link here: The Rocky Mountain Soap Company Stores. This place has everyday-use soaps and body care products as well as beautiful gift ideas.

Similar and currently local to B.C. are Jordan River Soapworks - some of the most eye catching packaging I’ve seen, Nezza Naturals - offering body care and raved about home care products and Saltspring Soapworks - easily the widest and most varied array of natural artisan soap products ever known!

So as you can see, we here in Victoria have a lot of choice when it comes to making safer choices when cleaning our house, home and family.

But what about those farther afield….friends of Used in far off places i.e anywhere over the water! Where do you buy your natural soaps, let us know so that we can share with our readers and take a look ourselves! 

Canadian Voices Rise Up to the Sky

National news can be learned directly from children, which was the case in my household regarding a new song my kids are learning at school. The song I.S.S. Is Somebody Singing was collaborated together by Astronaut Chris Hadfield and Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson and with how interactive Hadfield has been from space – the kids rate this partnership as something very cool! Officially commissioned by CBC Music, the goal is to bring attention to the importance of music education in Canada. The debut of the song Is Somebody Singing happened in February with the glee choir of Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts and not only is it a great song (and Chris Hadfield can really sing!) but it’s a coalition spreading a great message of unification through music across Canada. Music history was made when the song was recorded both on Earth and Space while Hadfield is in orbit on the International Space Station. Have a listen below!

Astronaut Hadfield helped co-write the song and I love the line “You can’t make out borders from up here.” Ed Robertson from Bare Naked Ladies has a wonderful quote about how we can all feel connected, even the wonder of what Chris Hadfield experiences in Space. Robertson’s quote is here:

“I wanted it to be a celebration not about the remoteness of space, but about the connectedness of a human being on the I.S.S. who looks down and sees the whole planet in a way that, from our perspective, we don’t have the opportunity to.”

I love listening to music that my kids enjoy and the goal for May 6 is to have the entire country united in song across the different time zones and have Hadfield hear the voices while still in space. It is the official song for Music Monday to promote and celebrate music education in schools. Share this message so that children that are home schooled, school music departments, and music makers of all backgrounds learn the song together and lend their voice in May.

Access free downloads and lyrics through the Coalition’s Music Monday website, and join the coalition to fill the skies with music. There are some great Music Monday ideas for getting started:

• Music Monday in a field
• Joint School Event – organized with multiple schools
• Community Wide Event – community partner with a senior music group, local choir, etc.

Play the video, learn the lyrics and help bring awareness for music education in your communities with this special song. Champion children to believe that anything is possible – whether it be travelling to space or hearing a song there.

Celebrate spring with a scavenger hunt

Are there any signs of spring where you are?

Here are a few I’ve been noticing:  snow melting, puddles, my front step dry of snow all week, longer line ups at car washes, kids on bikes, people out running and walking, rubber boots, people driving with windows open, kids blowing bubbles, kids on skateboards, a robin, and the temptation to open all my windows each day.

I admit it’s caught me off guard. There have been sunny days that I have spent indoors, without realizing what I am missing.  Or I drive to pick up my son from the bus stop, only to realize I should have walked. Suddenly I am realizing – I should get organized now so that when the sun shines or the mild temperatures beckon, we can just get out and enjoy.

Spring necessities to have ready:

Keep Celebrating with Easter Leftovers

It’s Easter weekend, one of my favourite holidays because it usually brings with it beautiful spring weather, not to mention family togetherness. And chocolate. And turkey. All wrapped up in a long weekend.

Another of the innumerable pleasures of Easter weekend is … leftovers! Not last year’s eggs that never got found, but the leftovers from turkey dinner (sorry, ham people, I’ve got nothing for you). After Easter dinner is over, I love how the holiday continues to the delightful ding of the microwave as miniature versions of Easter dinner arrive steaming and ready. And don’t even get me started on how delightfully light on the palate a turkey sandwich with mayo, tomato, and lettuce is.

Once you’re down to the turkey bones, Easter surely seems over unless you’ve got a few chocolate eggs stashed away. You’re ready to toss the carcass in the compost bin or (god forbid) the garbage. But wait! There’s still plenty of turkey meat on those bones, and Easter doesn’t have to be over yet. The easiest and tastiest way to use up the last of the turkey is to make a soup or stew from the carcass. If you can boil a pot of water, you can make a turkey stew and keep celebrating Easter well into next week. Here’s how you get started:

Turkey Stew (or Soup)

Step 1

Put the carcass into a large pot, breaking it up if necessary. Fill the pot with enough water to cover about half the carcass or more, depending on how much water you want in your stew or soup. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 3 hours. You are done this step when you can easily separate the meat from the bones just by picking it up, like in this video:

Step 2

Remove the bones, leaving the meat and the broth in the pot. Depending how much meat was left on your turkey bones and how much water you added, you may have a turkey soup going on, or a turkey stew so meaty you can stand your spoon up in it.

Step 3

At this point you have a nice, meaty turkey broth and you can take this recipe anywhere you want by adding cut up veggies like onions, carrots, celery, diced potatoes, a chopped up sweet potato, some cubed turnip. Add flavour with spices or seasoning such as a chicken bouillon cube and/or salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, thyme, sage, marjoram, garlic.

This year I think I’m going to take my meaty turkey broth and make this Turkey & Wild Rice Soup recipe by adding chicken bouillon, wild rice, onion, celery, carrots, spinach, sage, and balsamic vinegar.

Step 4

Cook at a low boil for 30-60 minutes until the veggies are cooked to the desired tenderness. Done! Easter is the best!

What are you doing with your Easter leftovers?

"Life Sudoku"

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Am I the only person that despises crossword puzzles?

Sometimes I feel like that, as I see people scribbling away all over the place: on the bus, at the beach, in the library and even when my brother-in-law visits (flying 5000km just to sit on our couch and scratch some words in a newspaper).   It’s not just crosswords either, it’s wordplay in general, which includes word-finds and about half the board games out there (I’m looking at you, Scrabble).

You know what’s even worse than word-play?  Number-play, as in, Sudoku.  Just thinking about configuring simple numbers into complex patterns gets me agitated.  I honestly would rather clean a toilet than partake in a single round of Sudoku.  Yuck.

While I question how people could possibly find enjoyment in crosswords or Sudoku, I fully understand why they do it.  Messing around with words and numbers keeps your brain active in ways it’s not normally used, helping keep mental sharpness and ward off maladies like dementia.  It’s the age-old adage:  Use it or lose it.

So what’s a person like me to do?  I’m sure the net benefit of forcing myself to do crosswords and Sudoku would be negated by the excruciating boredom I would experience.  Plus who wants to put themselves through a lifetime of doing something they disdain?  Not me.

In response to this, I’ve come up with a solution for my predicament.  Through a series of articles and books, I discovered that the most important part about word/number play is that it forces your brain to think in ways it normally wouldn’t.  Therefore, similar benefits could be accrued by doing plum-well anything that exercises the brain in new and different ways.  As a result, I’ve decided to begin pursuing something I like to call “life Sudoku”, which is the act of ‘hacking’ your life to include new physical, social and artistic undertakings.  To illustrate, here are a few examples of activities and actions that make my brain work overtime and yours too, should you try them out:

- Opposite-handed mousing:  Every now and then, switch your mouse to the opposite hand and spend a few hours fighting through crippling cursor-dysfunction.  Actually, an officemate of mine in Vancouver did this very thing for an entire year! 

- Walking with your eyes closed:  I’m not talking about huge, long walks but rather smaller jaunts, like the route from your car to the house.  Or if you live in an apartment, try and make it from your suite to the mailbox and back without looking.

- Eating food in the dark:  This is actually a pretty big movement in some regions.  In fact, there are actual restaurants in Montreal and Toronto where everybody dines in the dark (O.Noir).  The best way to do this at home though, is to have someone else prepare a meal you wouldn’t normally eat, without telling you what it is.  Then, in the dark, take your time and savour each bite, really focusing on the variety of flavours and scents that you encounter.

- Talking to strangers:  In day-to-day life, we encounter thousands of different people but hardly ever speak to any of them.  In fact, for me, almost every conversation is with someone I know really well, which means that on some level, chatting is always comfortable and predictable.  Push your brain’s boundaries by engaging people who catch your eye, for one reason or another and focus on finding out things about them.

- Listening to unfamiliar music:  Buy or borrow an album you normally wouldn’t be caught dead listening to, carve an hour out of your life and sit by yourself, uninterrupted and listen to it from beginning to end.  I mean really listen to it.  Listen for the beat, try and establish the lyrics, pick out the different instruments used on each track and differentiate the subtle layers.  If you were my father, a rap album would do the trick.

- Traitorous sports watching:  When you watch sports, occasionally try cheering for the opposite team.  If you’re a Maple Leafs fan and they’re playing the Canadiens, then force yourself to watch the game from the Canadiens perspective.  It’s actually quite difficult to do and can lend a unique angle to the game.

These examples of “life Sudoku” are just a scant few.  What’s more, they are influenced by my own personal interests and worldview, so they may not be for everyone.  The goal in sharing them was to try and give some examples to help spur individual ideas in others (and to help liberate the human race from the shackles of crosswords and Sudoku).  If you read this and think of a good idea yourself, absolutely feel free to share it in the comments section below.  And good luck with your opposite-handed tooth brushing!  Two minutes feels like a hand-marathon.

Soap Stars: Castile.

I’ve had a little theme of late with natural cleaning products. As I’ve mentioned before, there’s a reason my house smells like fish and chips at least once a week and no, it’s not because I’m addicted to succulent pieces of battered cod – though I could be. It’s because I use vinegar and baking soda to clean everything! Here is a link to my natural cleaning product article.

One of the comments on a recent blog of mine was in regard to making a natural dish soap. What a challenge! Yep, there are a lot of recipes on the web – there’s a lot of everything on the web, but do they work?

Last week, my fellow Used blogger Lisa, showed us a mighty fine and mighty thrifty recipe for natural laundry detergent. I’ll be gathering the ingredients for this this week and am very excited to save some money on laundry! But what about dish soap?

When I began looking for natural recipes for dish soap, there was one common denominator and that was castile soap. I’ve used Dr. Bronner’s tea tree castile soap for years. It was recommended for a skin problem I was having which cleared up within a few weeks of using it, but I use it for everything, including dish soap when I’ve run out of store bought.

What is Castile Soap and Why Use it?

Castile soap is made from plant based oils mixed with an alkili. It is gentle on you and the environment because it’s biodegradable and free from harsh cleansers, oleochemicals, artificial foaming agents, petrochemicals and/or chemical anti-bacterial agents.

Why use it? Because it’s gentle enough to use on you and yet effective enough to use on your rugs, kitchen floor, bathroom tiles, etc.

In fact recently I read an article on Dr. Bronner’s castile soap in a celebrity magazine! Even Lady Gaga and Gwynth Paltrow love Dr. Bronner’s so it must at least be effective on putrid meat smells whilst still being a vegan option.

What can it be used for?

What can’t it be used for?

• Shampoo – when mixed with water in a 1:3 part ratio
• Dishwasher detergent – as is
• Body wash – 2:1 castile to water
• Toothpaste – I’m not going to try this but many sources assure me it is far better for your teeth – I’ll have to trust you on that one!
• Veggie wash – just mix 1:2 ratio soap to water, but in a squeezy bottle and squirt your veggies
• Carpet cleaner – 1/4 cup soap with 1 cup water, put in blender and blend until you have a stiff foam – voila!
• Dishsoap – see my recipe below

 Homemade Dish Soap Recipe:

This is the recipe I have seen on a multitude of sites. I don’t usually write about anything I haven’t tried myself, that’s my number one blogging rule… but today I am breaking it and I vow to try this recipe in the next couple of weeks and report back. This is for you Mark Johnston, thanks for reading my blog!

• 1 ¾ cups boiling water
• 1 Tbsp borax
• 1 Tbsp grated bar soap (use castile bar soap, homemade soap, Ivory, or whichever natural bar you prefer)
• 15-20 drops essential oils, optional (find 100% pure essential oils here)

Directions: 

1. Heat water to boiling.
2. Combine borax and grated bar soap in a medium bowl. Pour hot water over the mixture. Whisk until soap is completely melted.
3. Allow mixture to cool on the countertop for 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. Dish soap will gel upon standing.
4. Transfer to a squirt bottle, and add essential oils (if using). Shake well to combine.

If you try this before I do, please let me know!

"Waste Not, Want Not" Series: Shriveled Oranges

Growing up, the saying “Waste not, Want not” was a common saying my mom would repeat all the time. Over the years she taught me great ways to reuse items, whether it be using toilet paper rolls for craft projects or freezing bread ends to make bread crumbs. The idea was to keep as much as you could out of the garbage can.

Now that I am a mom, I’ve realized that this need to reuse is something I want to teach my children as well. Lately, I’ve been focused on being able to use up as much produce in my house before it goes bad.  The obvious way to do this is to actually eat all of it when it’s ripe which is the goal I have in mind when I purchase fruits and veggies. Unfortunately, life throws curve balls and so, while you promised yourself you’d eat three to five servings of fruit each day, somehow only one piece ended up in your belly.

Because my goal hasn’t been as attainable as I’d like these last few weeks, I’ve been stuck looking into a fruit bowl and veggie drawer filled with yummy items that don’t exact look as good as they did when I first bought them. Technically they are still edible but don’t look or feel very appealing. So I decided I’d come up with some ways to reuse these aging pieces of produce and avoid tossing them in the compost.

My first challenge was a big bag of cutie oranges I bought at Costco last week. I completely intended on feeding these to my family as snacks every day but they accidentally got buried beneath some apples and were forgotten.

They weren’t rotten but had all become shrivelled and lost their plumpness. So I thought about what I could do to still enjoy these lovely sweet orbs. I thought about juicing them but they were so tiny that they couldn’t produce more than a few drops each using a manual juicer (I’m planning to grab an automatic one of the site very soon!) So instead I came up with another idea that, after trying out, actually worked out. Here’s what I did:

I washed the oranges under cold water and then cut them up into quarters.

I then stuffed the quarters into my shiny blender, peel and all, in preparation of being turned into pulp.

Lastly, I turned the switch to high and watched these little cuties become a lot of juicy orange pulp.

I know you are now wondering, “What in the heck is she going to do with all this orange pulp?” I did a little research online and found a bunch of muffin recipes that actually call for blending whole oranges! So my plan is to use some right away to make a batch of yummy muffins and then freeze the rest for the next batch I make. So simple it scared me!

S0 hopefully next time you find a forgotten orange hidden in the back of the fridge that has lost its “zest” you’ll think of this idea and manage to carry forward the “waste not, want not” tradition. Oh and here’s the recipe I’m planning to use the whole orange pulp in tonight, courtesy of Jessica from Lovely Wee Days Blog:

Date & Orange Muffins

2 oranges

2 large eggs 200g butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 Cup pitted dates, roughly chopped

400g natural yoghurt

a little lemon juice

3/4 Cup sugar 3 Cups standard flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Grease two 12-hole muffin pans.

Blend the whole oranges in the food processor–skin, seeds, everything! Add the eggs and melted butter. Whirl the mixture around, but do not over-process. Place it in a large bowl with the dates.

Mix the yoghurt, lemon juice and sugar together in a bowl. Sift the dry ingredients into another bowl. Add the yoghurt mixture and the dry ingredients to the orange mixture, alternating small amounts of each. Just blend with the lightest movement–do not over-mix. Place 2 tablespoons of batter in each hole of the prepared muffin pans.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the muffins comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes and then cool on a wire rack. The muffins keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container. These muffins also freeze well.

Do ONE THING on Pinterest challenge: the 5-minute cookie edition

I am on Pinterest (and I know many of you are too!) and I have found myself with a growing pile of ideas in my boards. The pile keeps getting bigger, yet, oddly, I haven’t done much with any of them. I see, I pin, and then I never really go back. It’s like buying a whole new wardrobe and still wearing my old clothes. Well, it’s time to change that! I’ve decided to use this space here to motivate myself to undertake one pin a week and start striking pins off my list. Of course I’ll share each one with you here, regardless of whether they were fantastic failures or spectacular triumphs.

It was with high hopes that I assembled all the ingredients to attempt this quick recipe.

Here’s the original pin:

And these were the directions to go with it:

“To make one cookie: 1 tb melted butter, 1 tb white sugar, 1 tb brown sugar, 3 drops vanilla, pinch salt, 1 egg yolk, 1/4 c. flour, 2 tbsp. chocolate chips MICROWAVE 40-60 SEC IN CUP OR BOWL.”

It sounds fabulous, doesn’t it? I figured this was a life-saver for those of us who don’t want to make a batch of 3-dozen cookies in order to satisfy a craving that strikes in a single moment (not to mention the fact that I almost always only have one stick of butter in the fridge). I thought that if this worked out, it would make a great after-school snack shared between myself and my youngest. It was a step above the Easy Bake oven. Why, she could even make these herself when her friend comes over on Saturday!

Sadly, this was one of those “too good to be true” pins.

I followed the directions exactly, only substituting white chocolate chips for the milk chocolate ones. It also took a lot longer than what the instructions called for. Here’s what it looked like before I put it in the microwave:

And here’s what it looked like after:

Not much of a difference, is there? And it certainly doesn’t look like the original photo. Maybe the ramekin I used was too small – I’m not sure – but the texture of this dessert was more cake-like and not cookie-like, which was a turn off for me. I ate a forkful and trashed the rest.

Let this be a lesson to me: Baked goods needs to stay out of the microwave.

5 Unexpected Ways to Use Coconut Oil

Last week, my 7 month-old broke out with her first diaper rash. It was sore and inflamed and I couldn’t seem to get it under control with normally suggested methods. Several moms in my mommy’s group recommended coconut oil. I was skeptical but feeling desperate so I gave it a try and to my surprise, it worked. Her rash cleared up in a matter of days. My husband later informed me that I am late to the coconut oil party, but I’m here now and I’m on board!

As it turns out, you can use coconut oil for just about anything beauty and health related (cooking is a bonus). Here are five uses for coconut oil that I found especially interesting.

1. Diaper Rash Cream

Make sure that the baby’s bottom is clean and dry. Once the area is prepped, you can just warm a little solid coconut oil between your fingers and rub it on. The antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory components of coconut oil help sooth and heal the rash.

2. Eye Make-up Remover

Warm up coconut oil in your hands, rub in a circular motion gently on your eyes and wipe with a cotton pad or ball and off comes your make-up. Once you’ve removed the oil, you can rinse with warm water, and then re-apply a little coconut oil as a moisturizing under-eye cream.

3. Cold Sores/ Lip Balm

Coconut oil smells great and is extremely moisturizing, so it works great as a lip balm. You just need to cut off a small solid piece and find a nice container with a re-sealable lid, pop it in your bag and you’re good to go! It is also believed to be helpful in curing cold sores because of its antimicrobial properties. The research is still out on this one, but it can’t hurt to try.

4. Deep Conditioner

Coconut oil is a natural, deep conditioner for dry hair. Apply on damp hair and leave in for 20-30 minutes and then wash out. Remember, it’s oil so you don’t want to get it on your clothes. It also works wonders on detangling hair (and it smells so yummy).

5. Body Lotion

You can use coconut oil on any part of your body as a lotion. A spoonful goes a long way, so no need to overdo it. And don’t worry, the oily feeling goes away quickly once it absorbs fully into your skin. If your feet are dry and cracked from a long winter, you can slather them up, slap on some socks and let the oil do its job. 

You can pick up a container of virgin coconut oil in the natural section of just about any grocery store but there are two things you need to look out for.

First, you want a virgin coconut oil as you want to make sure it is unrefined and has not been hydrogenated, bleached or deodorized. Secondly, you want to ensure it is cold pressed (instead of a heat-based extraction) because if coconut oil is heated past its smoking point, it can lead to the formation of carcinogens.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Fellow UsedEverywhere blogger Amber recently shared some of her top tips for cleaning your home without toxic chemicals. The natural cleaning methods she recommends are not only healthier for you and your family because they don’t contain toxic chemicals, but also better for the environment for the same reason.

As it turns out, homemade cleaning products are much cheaper, too. When you buy cleaning products from the store, you’re paying for the dozens of chemicals that go into every bottle, plus the research that went into developing those chemicals. Add in the cost of the fancy packaging, and the marketing campaigns and advertisements that get you to buy the cleaners in the first place. Chemicals are expensive!

True confession time: I don’t do that much housecleaning, so switching to homemade cleaning products isn’t actually going to save me much money. But my husband and I generate a lot of laundry somehow, so using store-bought laundry detergent is one area of our lives where we were literally pouring money down the drain, along with a lot of chemicals. That is why we switched to homemade laundry detergent three years ago and have never gone back.

Homemade laundry detergent is quick and easy to make – it takes only three ingredients compared to the three dozen listed on the back of a box of Tide. It is low-sudsing, so it is perfectly safe to use in both HE front-loaders and standard washing machines. Homemade laundry detergent performs just as well as any store-bought detergent ever did for me: it works in both cold and hot water, it lifts stains, keeps whites white, and takes Rolf’s shirts from funktastic to fresh as a daisy. All without dozens of toxic chemicals, and for pennies a load. With all these points in favour of homemade laundry detergent, I feel like a chump for ever using store-bought detergent!

If you’re ready to shake off the chains of the store-bought laundry detergent industry, here’s how you do it.

Homemade Laundry Detergent – Powder

You can find the ingredients in the laundry or cleaning aisle of most Wal-Marts and large grocery stores such as Loblaws / Real Canadian Superstore.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup borax
• 1 cup washing soda (not to be confused with baking soda!)
• 1 bar laundry soap (e.g. Sunlight, Fels Naptha, Zote, or you can even use regular body soap like Ivory)

Directions:

Finely grate the bar of laundry soap with a cheese grater, blender, or food processor. Mix the grated soap with the borax and the washing soda. Store in an airtight container such as a jar or plastic tub. This detergent is very concentrated, so you only need to use 1 tbsp of powdered detergent per load of laundry (use 2-3 tbsps for heavily soiled or stinky loads).

Homemade Laundry Detergent – Liquid

The liquid version of homemade laundry detergent takes more work, but it still requires only three ingredients and is just as cheap. I made the liquid version for two years because I had always used liquid store-bought detergents, and because my HE front-loading washing machine had a liquid dispenser. Turns out you can just remove the liquid-dispensing cup from the washing machine and use powder instead. The powder works just as well as the liquid for me, so I’ve switched because it’s easier to make. If you just plain prefer liquid detergents, here’s how you make the homemade version.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup borax
• 1 cup washing soda
• 1 bar laundry soap
• large bucket with lid

Directions:

Grate the bar of laundry soap into a large pot. Add 6 cups of water and heat on low or medium, stirring occasionally, until all the soap is melted – avoid boiling as this produces a lot of foam. In a large bucket, mix the borax and the washing soda with 10 Litres (or 40 cups or 2.5 gallons) of very hot water and stir well. Add the hot soapy water from the stove and stir until everything is thoroughly mixed. Let stand overnight. When it cools, it will turn into a solid gelatinous mass – break it up and stir it with a large wooden spoon until it becomes a smooth, thick, liquidy mixture. Use 1 cup per load.

COST ANALYSIS

Each of the recipes above makes enough for 50 loads of laundry. The cost breakdown is:

Borax (2kg box / 10 cups): $4.99 ÷ 10 cups = $0.50 per batch
Washing Soda (3kg box / 15 cups): $4.99 ÷ 15 cups = $0.33 per batch
Sunlight Laundry Bar Soap: $1.25 each

At a total cost of $2.08 per batch, which makes enough for 50 loads of laundry, that’s about four cents a load. See you in the borax aisle!