DIY Laundry Soap: An Update

When the girls and I started making our own powdered laundry soap a year and a half ago, people had a LOT of questions, and even more opinions:

• Would it really be cheaper than purchasing detergent?
• Would it really get our clothes clean?
• Would it fight stains?
• Would our clothes become dingy over time?
• Would it ruin my washing machine?

Today, 18 months later, I've got all the answers.

1. Is making our own powdered laundry soap cheaper than purchasing detergent?

Yes and yes and yes! Although I haven't kept track of how often we wash how many loads, I will tell you that in early January 2011, I purchased one box of borax, one box of washing soda, one tub of Oxyclean, and two bars of Fels Naptha; that, plus baking soda, is what I use to make our laundry soap, sometimes using my homemade bar soap instead of Fels Naptha. I've been using only homemade laundry soap since I started, and I gave a Mason jar full of homemade laundry soap away at Christmas, and I haven't run out of any of those original supplies yet; price the cost of those supplies in your area, estimate how much laundry I might do for my family of four each week, and you can get a pretty good estimate of what you'd save.

As for me, I'm thrilled. When I first started making this soap, I estimated that it would cost 3 cents a load--for me, it actually costs SO much less when compared to purchasing conventional detergent.

the kiddos making a big batch of laundry soap last week

 2. Does homemade laundry soap really get our clothes clean?

Yes! No matter whether or not I use Fels Naptha or my homemade bar soap, our clothes come out of the wash clean and fresh. They smell good, and regular dirt and food (oh, those girls!) disappears.

3. Does homemade laundry soap fight stains?

Nope, not at all! Unlike conventional store-bought detergents, this homemade soap seems to have no stain-fighting power. Regular dirt and spills and whatever wash out, but mud, and spaghetti sauce, and other stains that deeply penetrate the fiber of the cloth don't. Fels Naptha does better at getting out grease stains than my homemade bar soap does--I know this because I saw more of that type, in particular, coming out of the washing machine when I used my homemade soap--so it's possible that there's a soap out there that would work really well at stain-fighting, but neither of the bar soaps that I've tried have much to offer in that regard. I'm okay with this, both because I'm saving a crazy amount of money with this homemade soap, and because I can still get rid of the stains completely, but just with a little more work. I treat all stains as soon as the item of clothing is removed for the day by wetting the stain, rubbing a bar of Fels Naptha onto it, and rubbing the Fels Naptha in. I also pre-soak stained clothing for several hours by putting a bucket in the bathtub, scooping in a couple of tablespoons of laundry soap, filling the bucket with water from the tap, and submerging the stained clothing in it. Finally, in the summer I try to hang laundry to dry on the line--not every load, but every few loads, so that everything gets hung dry at least a few times during the summer--to sun-bleach everything.

Mind you, this is only necessary if something is truly stained; most of our clothing, including normal spills and stains, wash out without extra attention.

the jar of laundry soap that lives in the bathroom, used for pre-soaking stained clothing

4. Have our clothes become dingy over time?

Nope, not at all! We have an he washing machine, and I'm pretty militant about clean rinsing, anyway, so I put vinegar in the rinse agent compartment every time I wash, and I set my machine for a second rinse every time, as well. I don't know if that's the secret, or it's our water quality, or what, but nothing is dingy, not even our whites.

5. Has homemade laundry soap ruined our washing machine?

Most of the criticisms that I've received on my posts about my homemade laundry soap have had to do either with dingy clothes or broken washing machines. A lot of people seem really afraid that homemade laundry soap will ruin a fancy he washing machine. If homemade laundry soap had ruined my washing machine, I'd totally tell you, but our machine works fine. Mind you, Matt occasionally cleans out that pipe thing that runs from the washing machine to the wastewater pipes, because we have such pathetically crappy plumbing that we have to really be on top of its maintenance if we don't want to pay to have our main line unclogged every month, so if that's the part of the machine that people are worried about then it does get cleaned regularly (which Matt would do even if we used conventional laundry detergent), but since I've never really heard what people specifically think could happen to a washing machine that uses homemade soap, and I've never heard from anyone who actually had their washing machine ruined with homemade soap, all I can say is that ours is fine!

Conclusion: I'm really happy with our homemade laundry soap. If I learned of a recipe that claimed to fight stains better than ours does, I'd try it out, but I wouldn't consider going back to conventional detergent.

Tutorial: DIY Deep Conditioner

Back in December, the girlies got head lice. I don't have any leads on the origin of the infestation, although I am pretty suspicious of these riding helmets.

Treating for head lice, while not super-fun, was actually not even remotely as bad as I'd feared it would be. We didn't even nit pick, and although I know that you're going to tell me that we did it all wrong if we didn't nit pick, we didn't.

We did use two doses of a CDC-recommended pesticide shampoo (because yes, I use poison on my babies), spaced nine days apart, to bomb the little bastards into the next century, and although that, combined with a dedicated focus on avoiding cross- or re-contamination, worked for us, man, did it do a number on my poor little kids' hair! Their hair was so dry afterwards, and Syd had the addition of an itchy, flaky scalp. I'd use it again if I had to, because it worked, but after a few weeks' time and the conclusive evidence that the head lice were all gone, the kiddos' hair definitely needed some rehabilitation.

Have you ever put olive oil on your hair? I still won't do it on my own kind-of dry hair, because I find the flashbacks to my junior high years, when my hair seemed to be greasy again a half-hour after I washed it (and I refuse to even recall the condition of my face), too painful, but I happily had Willow mix up the following recipe of one part olive oil, one part apple cider vinegar, and one part honey:

I was tempted to add a couple drops of a nice essential oil, lavender or tea tree or peppermint, but I'm too leery of putting essential oils directly on my children to actually do it, so instead I worked it through the kids' dry hair (it was REALLY messy, like crazy messy, and you know that I am not afraid of mess), let them read for a half-hour so that it could soak in--

--and then shampooed their hair.

Results: The treatment did work, although it wasn't ideal at the time. It took three separate shampoos to wash all of the oil out of their hair, and since I didn't want to wash their hair three times in a row, figuring that wouldn't be helpful to their dry skin and hair, I spaced the shampoos out over six days, just braiding their hair in between times and ignoring the fact that it was oily.

Now, however, their hair is perfectly glossy and smooth, doesn't feel dry to the touch, and Syd no longer has an itchy, flaky scalp. I'm trying to be more vigilant about putting leave-in conditioner into their hair after every bath to combat any more dryness before it begins.

I've heard that leave-in conditioner also has some prophylactic properties regarding head lice--the reasoning being that it's harder to get a grip on a hair strand with conditioner on it, I suppose? I'm also trying to insist that the girls shampoo their hair more frequently than they'd prefer, and to better supervise their hair brushing, because I think that I could have caught that head lice infestation earlier if I'd been more vigilant. I'm stopping short of treating their hair with essential oils, because those same oils are in all our cleaning supplies and our soap--they're getting a pretty good dose of tea tree oil every day even without me spraying it on their hair, I'm thinking, and I'm reluctant to add more directly onto their bodies. I'm insisting that each girl use her own hair brush, and not her sister's, but they still share towels--and a bed!--and half their clothes and all their playtime.

Eh, at least it's not pinworms again. Now THAT was gross!

Practical Life: Using a Washboard

Okay, these days using a washboard probably isn't considered so much practical life as it is hands-on history, but if you've got anything in your wardrobe that prefers to be hand-washed, or washed on the delicates setting in the washing machine, then I assure you that a washboard is the way to get those clothes the cleanest while keeping them the soundest with the least expenditure of effort.

And so, when the baby's ballet togs begin to look dingy, I send her into the bath with leotards and tights, a bar of my hot-process soap, and the washboard:

I generally do a quick pre-wash and rinse of the dirtiest parts of the uniform myself--the feet and knees of the tights, the belly and butt of the leotards--using a bar of Fels Naptha and the washboard in the sink, before passing it all over to the kid, and in the past I would give each item a second rinse, as well, as she passed it to me, before wringing it out and hanging it over the shower curtain rod, but this last time Syd had rinsed everything so well that I didn't find any extra suds, so next time that's just one less job that I'll have to do for her!

I think that I could hand-wash each of Syd's ballet uniform pieces in a couple of minutes, flat, and the fact that Sydney takes an hour in the tub hand-washing them just means that she enjoys the job so much. In fact, I'm imagining that in the summer, when she can take the washboard outside with a bucket, a bar of soap, the garden hose, and the clothesline, I could probably trick permit her to wash all our white T-shirts and handkerchiefs and what-have-you's independently out there and hang them right up to dry.

Don't you love it when the play that is a child's work is actual, you know, WORK? I sure do!

Rice Pillows

When I labored with Sydney, I didn't have jack shit to help me out, because my doula, my birthing ball, my essential oils, my rice sock, my hot shower, my midwife, and my friends who were going to babysit Willow were all several hours away back home in Indiana, while I was in Michigan going into labor six weeks early. Oops.

When I labored with Willow, however, although I only wish that I'd had a doula, I did have my birthing ball, my essential oils, my hot shower, my midwife, and this really awesome tube sock filled with rice that I'd made at my natural birthing class.

Good lord, I loved that rice sock. I would have married it if I didn't already have this guy next to me who'd gone and knocked me up. He's the reason that I got introduced to the rice sock, however, so he and I are still good.

The joy of a rice sock (or a rice pillow, as you'll see in a bit), is that rice holds its heat really, really well, and it's a kind of steamy, very soothing heat, as well, far better than a heating pad, similar to a hot water bottle but much longer-lasting. You simply microwave the rice sock for about a minute, and then you've got around an hour's worth of heat, packaged in this soft, hefty container that, because of the weight of the rice, really seems to penetrate. Mmmmmm.....get the idea?

Of course, I giant tube sock filled with several pounds of dried rice is really best suited for pregnant people with their giant bellies, so I did eventually pass on my precious, butt-ugly rice sock to a pregnant cousin, and to replace it I made a family's worth of flannel rice pillows, smaller but still hefty, as sturdy as a tube sock but with much softer, MUCH prettier fabric. Goofy fabric, for the most part, since the girls mostly chose it.

And one day last week, Sydney helped me photograph them to list in my pumpkinbear etsy shop:

Blue and Butterflies Rice Pillow

A Little Helper

Hearts and Rainbows Pink Flannel Rice Pillow

Pink and Ponies Flannel Rice Pillow

Just Plain Pink Flannel Rice Pillow

 There's that Little Helper Again

Soon I'll perhaps be able to delegate all the photography into her capable hands!

To Partially Explain the Clown Feet

In case you happen to see me around town and it makes you wonder:

Preschool mani-pedi, my friends.

Vegetable Glycerin Soap Redux

I would have liked to have tried a different project this year, but Christmas crept up on us on little cat-feet, and what with gingerbread houses, and final papers, and travel plans, I didn't really even think about organizing a handmade gift for the girls to make their teachers this year until Thursday, the day before the last day of school before the break.

But isn't that what an old standby is FOR?
Vegetable glycerin soap is melt-and-pour, and just about the easiest project that you can get up to with a couple of little kids. One of these days I plan to write a vegetable glycerin soap tutorial for the sole purpose of illustrating how ridiculously simple and awesomely fun it is. The girls and I use regular all-purpose silicon molds, the same ones that we use for muffins and crayons and soap, but the thing that I think is the most fun, and the thing that I think makes this a project that children can make for ADULTS (projects like that are so few and far between), is the stash of essential oils and dried herbs and such that I bring out.

I have a pretty diverse stash, since I use oils and herbs medicinally, for cleaning, in soap-making, and for, you know, scenting baths--very important usage. Each girl, when it's her turn to create a soap, gets to sniff and sample and ultimately choose one essential oil and one herb. The unique combinations are what make the soap so sophisticated, and so fun. For instance, this is vanilla essential oil and dried calendula flowers in a Lego mold:
This is cinnamon essential oil and lavendar flowers in a heart mold--I really liked the combination of this one:

The only one that didn't work for us--I think the only one that hasn't worked EVER--was lemon-eucalyptus essential oil and Epsom salts. I've used Epsom salts before and they've worked fine, but this time they all settled to the bottom of the mold and formed a sludge there that refused to harden. Those are in our own bath right now.

And, of course, a little gift bag made from a single page from an atlas, or a single comic book page, is the perfect size to hold a single soap:

I've used several gift bag templates in my day, but one day soon I'm going to make my own, with measurements that use more measurable increments better--it's very annoying to have to measure 3/16 of an inch, or .8, etc., especially when you're trying to make a dozen of these during one episode of Law and Order: SVU.

And I think that my gift bag will be the EXACT size of a comic book page, not just an approximation. Because in a comic book, even the margins are important.

Bright Little Fingernails

Basically the only way that the girls will let me trim their nails is if I announce, apropos of nothing, "Hey, let's trim your nails really quick so that you can paint them!"I'm pretty sure this would work with boys, too, because the nail polish colors are AWESOME--purple basecoat with alternating green polka dots and orange stripes, or each fingernail half red and half pink and the thumb is blue, or, if you're a traditionalist, you could just go for the red and white "candy cane" paint job.
Of course, this is mainly the plan in the little girls' heads. No matter how carefully I talk them through proper manicure procedure, the paint job does always reveal itself to be child-engineered in a multitude of ways. But, eh--the kids love it anyway.

Best part, though?

The best part is however long I can convince them to sit quietly just like that so that their nails can dry. It's never long enough to actually allow their nails to dry fully, of course, but I will take any small amount of peace that I can get.

Duct Tape Removes Warts

Y'all, don't think bad about me, but I used to have a wart. It's gone now, but it was totally gross. Just ask Matt--I was all the time showing it to him and saying things like, "This is so gross, look at it!"

It was a plantar's wart, I think, and smack on the bottom of my foot, which tells me that I need to start wearing sandals when I go to the public swimming pool, and it was crazy-painful to walk on, so much so that I was actually popping ibuprofin every morning just to take the edge off.

I tried that over-the-counter wart removal stuff, which just peeled away a bunch of skin which then callused and became even more painful to walk on, and I tried the doctor's office, where a physician's assistant froze it but told me that freezing didn't always work and told me to use duct tape.

And so let me tell you--duct tape is the business. You put the duct tape on to cover your wart, and then every now and then you rip it off and put on a new piece. You can leave the tape off for a while every now and then to let your skin rest, and the whole process does take a while. But it absolutely works.

Nothing happened for a couple of days after I started putting the duct tape over the wart on my foot, but then, on like day three, all these other tiny little warts suddenly started erupting all around the original wart--my theory is that this was other places where the virus was embedded in my skin, and the duct tape was just bringing them all to the surface at once, instead of one-by-one over time for the rest of my freakin' life.

Some people say that the wart will turn black and then fall off with the duct tape, but this isn't what happened with me. All the little warts, and the larger plantar's wart, turned to dead, callused skin, and then, every time I peeled off the duct tape, I would also take off some of this skin. Sometimes the tape would peel off a huge, thick chunk of skin, basically showing how deeply the wart had been embedded--seriously, it was crazy-deep, you should ask Matt--and then leave this huge crater in the bottom of my foot. It was disgusting. And also awesome.

The duct tape didn't hurt, although I've actually been trying this process on Willow, now, for a plantar's wart that she also has on the bottom of her foot, and she doesn't like it when the tape peels off part of the wart, although I think that it may just be the unpleasant sensation of peeling skin that she's reacting to, not actually pain. And it's working on her just the same, although I'm taking my time with the process and letting her foot have plenty of time away from the duct tape, as well.

And when we've used up all our duct tape on all our weird and disgusting skin ailments? I kind of want to make us some commemmorative duct tape roll bangles.

Walking on warts makes feet sore, so we both liked warm footbaths with tons of apple cider vinegar and a generous amount of tea tree oil and epsom salts, as well. But what doesn't a nice, warm footbath cure?

In other news, the girls and I have been spending an oddly large amount of time at cemeteries lately:

I've gotten really into photographing old headstones, because I'm weird and weird people have weird hobbies, apparently. I love looking at the entire landscape of an older cemetery, however--I mean, doesn't that photo above remind you of a sort of post-modern Stonehenge, with the huge chunks of limestone all skewed and plunked down into the green grass?

Once after visiting Stonehenge, I planned this elaborate hiking trip to visit all the mysterious standing stones all around the countryside in Great Britain. And then I grew up and got less weird, but I think I'm cycling back around to more weird again, so perhaps that trip will make it back on my to-do list someday soon.

Fancy Hair, and the Children are Singing for Peace

One of the many things that I love about Montessori is that peace is actually a subject on the curriculum. In the girls' class they talk about it a lot, and one of the kindergarten works that I'm looking forward to for Will is this thing called "Our Peaceful Classroom." I'm also, in my role as Parents' Library librarian for the school, transferring all of these conference proceedings from cassette to CD (oh, what a pain in the butt!), and it's interesting to hear all kinds of conference talks about teaching peace and modeling peace and practicing peace for all the age levels of Montessori.

Anyway, there's usually at least one big ceremony for peace during each school year. Last year, the Peace Pole was dedicated (thankfully during the morning preschool, because this ceremony has also become famous as The Hornet Attack of 2008, In Which the School's Emergency Preparedness Plan was Put to Use and Many Small Children Were Traumatized), but this year the girls will be joining their classmates and 65, 807 other children in Montessori schools across the world in a chain that will sing a single song about peace for 24 continuous hours. The song is called "Light a Candle for Peace," written by a Montessori teacher in Canada, and it's a simple, benign little ditty, as sweet as a homemade cookie. I know this because the girls have been "practicing" nonstop:

Willow's got the words down pretty well when she's not being distracted, but I think it's funny how Sydney clearly knows less than a quarter of the words, and will just sort of sing "Peace, peace!" over and over in her own little tune, or join in with the lyrics about a half-beat behind her sister. Perfect little ambassadors to the world, don't you think?


In other news, the girls requested "fancy hair," for School Picture Day, with some exacting requirements, and me, ME, me the person who has actually buzz-cut my own head for years at a time just to avoid having to fix my hair, I listened to these exacting requirements, I bought BOBBY PINS, lord help me, and then I created this unto my children:
Here's a close-up so you can witness the wonder of my bobby pin action:
I was afraid the girls would get teased at school, bless their hearts--their tastes are so wonderful and so eccentric, and I dread the day that eccentricity gets beaten out of them--but of course they didn't get teased, they got loaded up with compliments, and now I fear that every day may be Fancy Hair Day around here.