It's mid-April, and already we've accomplished 2 out of my 3 outdoor projects for the month.  I'm pretty happy with that.  My hubby and dad put up our clothesline for us last weekend and I've been using it and loving it all week. And hubs also made a rain barrel for us, but has to redo the lid, so it's not operational quite yet, but it's close enough that I'll call it done! Thanks babe!

Maybe it's still new and novel, but I LOVE going out and hanging my clothes on the line.  There is something just peaceful about it. The weather has been BEAUTIFUL here this past week, and after the long and cold winter cooped up inside, I just can't get enough excuses to go outside - hanging up laundry is a great one! It's just so great to slow down, get outside, enjoy creation and smell the lilacs. There is a lilac bush, which is one of my favorites, right alongside the clothesline and it smells so good when the breeze blows past. :)  It's peaceful and relaxing and so far, I'm really enjoying it. 


I also hung out my a load of cloth diapers, and I loved seeing the diapers on the line.  Cloth diapers hanging out to dry on a clothesline - it made me so happy, it really is the little things!



I washed our sheets and hung them out on the second day the line was up, because I've always read about how great lined dried sheets are.  If you have not line dried your sheets before (I never had) you have to try it!  They smell so fresh and so clean, and they come off the line nice and crisp, but still soft.  I realized why fabric softeners smell the way they do, the are trying to imitate the beautiful, natural smell of nature, but of course they can't compete with the real thing!


If you don't have a clothesline, I highly encourage you to get one!  It doesn't have to be complicated.  Ours is a retractable one that my parents gave us and goes between two of our big trees in our backyard.  It's not long enough to hold an entire load of laundry, :( so we need to put up another line between the tree and the garage, but it's definitely a good start.  Did you know that between 6-10% of a households energy use goes to drying clothes in the dryer?  I'm really interested and excited to see how our electric bill changes (goes down!) once we have our second clothesline up and we can hang out all our laundry!

And if you need a little more motivation to put up a clothesline, this Monday, April 19th is National Hanging Out Day.  It is a day created by Project Laundry List to educate people and communities about the benefits of line drying your clothes - it good for your wallet and for the earth. So, put up a clothesline this weekend and hang out your clothes on Monday and show your support for naturally drying your clothing! 

Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom
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This month’s Change Challenge is Read the Ingredients! You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here.

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

How I Haven't Bought Paper Towels in Over 6 Months
As part of the Change Challenge series, I want to tell you a little bit about how I do things on a day to day basis at our house.  Not that I think that how I do things is the best or only way to do things.  I just  have been getting lots of questions lately from friends and family about how I do some of the things that I do.  So, I thought maybe my blog readers would have similar types of questions. I think sometimes the idea of starting to do something like not buying paper towels is overwhelming to people and they don't even know where to start, or what it looks like to not use paper towels on a daily basis. Since we're tackling changing our cleaning this month, I'll start with how I handle cleaning cloths around my house. 

My mom was just telling me the other day about how my grandpa used to rinse out his paper towels, hang them to dry, and reuse them, so I guess it's just kind of in my genes!  But I've taken it a step farther by not buying paper towels at all. 

To begin with, you can read this post, where I explain what I use for different tasks around my home that others may use paper towels for.  By using these different types of cloths, I haven't bought paper towels in over 6 months.  I bought a package when we first moved into our house for the original cleaning that we would do, and haven't bought another package since then.  I also don't buy paper napkins or tissues.  The only paper product that we use in our home is toilet paper.  

Recently, I had a friend tell me that she doesn't like to clean her kitchen with a rag because usually it's been sitting on her counter or sink for a few days and she thinks it's gross (which it probably is), so she uses paper towels.  Basically, I use several fresh, clean rags every day around my house.  I grab a clean washcloth to wipe K's face after breakfast every day, and if it's not too dirty, I rinse it out to reuse it for after lunch.  I use a clean dishcloth every day for washing dishes, and a clean washcloth for wiping the counters and table.  I don't reuse cloths that have been sitting around for longer than a day.  I have lots of all of the different kinds of cloths that I use, so I never run out before I've done a load of laundry.  I think that's one of the most important things - if you always have a cloth on hand, you won't be tempted to reach for a paper towel.

We also only use cloth napkins, even when we have company.  Our home group for our church comes over every Tuesday night for dinner, and I only offer cloth napkins.  I'm washing a load of rags every week anyway, it's really not a big deal to add 8-10 more cloth napkins to the load.  

Every night I gather up the used, dirty rags, usually there's a small pile on the kitchen floor by the door to the basement, and I throw them down the stairs into a mesh hanging laundry bag.  In the mesh bag they are able to air out and not get smelly or moldy.  

I would say I wash rags at least once a week, sometimes twice.  I have bleached my rags in the past, but am trying not to use bleach anymore, so I wash my rags in hot water on the heavy duty cycle with detergent and Oxyclean and an extra rinse.  

I do have some rags I could use and then throw away for really gross stuff, like if our dog throws-up.  They're usually Jer's old t-shirts that I have cut into rags and I'll use one of those to clean up a yucky  mess and then just throw it away.  

Also, it's important to figure out a system that works for you for storing your clean cloths.  I have almost a whole drawer and part of a cupboard in my kitchen dedicated to kitchen cloths.  I have a whole shelf in my hall closet for cleaning rags.  And I live in a small house with limited storage space - I have made room for what is important to me. 

Using cloth instead of paper towel has really just become so second nature to me around our home.  I don't miss paper towels at all.  It did take a little getting used to at first, but there has not been a time in at least the last 4 months that I've thought, "I wish I had a paper towel for this."  For me, I see no reason to throw away a paper that was only used one time when I can easily wash and reuse rags over and over and over again.  Not buying paper towels will save you money and save the earth at the same time. Using rags and cloths around your home instead of paper towels is definitely frugally green!

What do you think about using rags and cloths in place of paper towels?  Is it something you do, or could see yourself doing?  What steps can you take toward going paper towel-less this month?  

Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom

One of the ways that we have cut back on our budget is by eliminating dry cleaning. We used to have my hubby's work shirts dry cleaned every week. It was really nice to not have to worry about washing and ironing his shirts for work everyday.

But, dry cleaning, especially for dress shirts, is an unnecessary expense when you can easily wash and iron your own clothes at home. And now that I know more about the chemicals used in dry cleaning, I would still choose to launder his shirts at home, even if we had room in the budget for dry cleaning.

Dry cleaning uses a chemical called Tetrachloroethene (it also goes by tetrachloroethylene, perchloroethylene, or PCE) and is most commonly known as PERC.1 You can be exposed to PERC simply by bringing dry cleaned clothes into your home because the clothing can off-gas the chemical into the air, and even, though less likely, through your skin by wearing the dry cleaned clothes on your body. PERC is labeled as a possible carcinogen by the World Health Organization and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency1 and must be handled as hazardous waste.2 Not something that I want in my home or for my husband to be wearing.

So, I have been washing and ironing Jer's works shirts for him. (That's love!) I used to use store bought spray starch, because he liked the feel of the stiff starched dry cleaned shirts. But then when I ran out, I just didn't buy any more. Just recently, as part of my homemade kick, I thought about making my own spray starch and found lots of recipes online. I mixed up a batch and used it to iron his shirts, and am really pleased the the results.

Homemade Spray Starch
2 cups cold water
1 Tbsp corn starch

Yep! It really is that easy. Mix it together and then put it in a spray bottle and shake it up until the cornstarch is dissolved. Make sure you shake it each time before you iron too. If you want it to be even more "starchy" you can add more cornstarch. I would be a little afraid of residue on my clothing though. This spray really does make ironing easier, especially when the shirts have been sitting in a laundry basket for a week (blush). And his shirts look nice and crisp without being overly stiff. Also, when I iron his shirts all at the same time for the week (which doesn't happen as often as I would like, but is ultimately my goal) the shirts stay looking nice and freshly ironed even after hanging in the closet for a few days.

Plus, could it be any cheaper?! Basically the cost of a Tablespoon of corn starch - for my box of corn starch was about 4 cents. Compared to the $2 can from the store that you often can't even use all of it because the nozzle gets plugged - you can't beat that! And no can to throw in the landfill when you're done.

If you use homemade spray starch along with homemade laundry detergent, you are well on your way to a frugally green laundry routine!

Happy ironing! (If that's even possible) :)


1. thedailygreen.com
2. Wikepedia.org

Since I've been on such a homemade kick recently, it would make sense that I would try making my own laundry detergent. I wanted something cheap, gentle on our clothing, and safe for our family.
Did you know that most commercial laundry detergents are filled with enzymes, brighteners, softeners, fragrances and dyes (basically yucky chemicals) that coat your clothing making them appear cleaner by appealing to your sense of sight and smell? The colors look bright and the clothes smell good, so they must be clean, right? I don't know about you, but I don't want to be wearing all those chemicals against my skin all day, so here's what I've been using for homemade laundry soap. My friend Jenica gave me the recipe, and after doing a little more reading online I decided on the type of soap I wanted to use.

Update #2 - 2/26/10 - I was still having some major trouble with this laundry detergent leaving spots on our clothes, so I made the switch to using Fels Naptha, along with using the tips from the update below, and have had great results for the last month or so! 



Update #1 - 11/18/09: I was having some trouble with spotting on some of my clothing with this detergent. (Grrr) I made a batch without the baking soda and I also used the food processor to grind the soap into small beads (cut the soap bar into strips first). I also read that the detergent doesn't dissolve as well in cold water, so I've been starting my loads with warm water and then after two minutes or so, once the soap has been dispensed into the washer drum and has some time to dissolve, I switch the water to cold. These changes seem to have eliminated the problems I was having!




Homemade Laundry Detergent

3 cups of Borax, and
2 cups each:
Washing Soda
Baking Soda
Grated Soap - I use 1 bar of Kirk's Castille Soap  now I use 1 bar of Fels Naptha.  

I have a front loading HE machine and use about 2 Tbsp. per load. This is a naturally low-sudsing detergent, which is what is important for HE machines. The amount of detergent you use is something that you may have to experiment with and find out what works best for your washing machine.

I use white vinegar in place of fabric softener. I fill the fabric softener compartment in my machine with white vinegar. It does a good job of naturally softening the clothes and helping to keep them free of static.

You could also double the recipe to make more at one time. We've been using it for a few weeks and I'm happy with the results. Our clothes smell nice and fresh and just simply clean - no harsh chemicals or synthetic fragrances. I still pre-treat any clothes that have stains with Spray 'n Wash (love that stuff, but don't love the ingredients), but I am working on figuring out a greener, natural stain remover for when my bottle runs out.

Also, I found another similar recipe online, just without the baking soda. I may try that next, just to see how it works, one less ingredient means that it is just that much cheaper to make!

Do you use natural or homemade laundry detergent? What works for you? Also, if you have a natural, homemade stain remover I would love to hear about it!

Check out Grocery Chart Challenge for more great recipes, and Life as Mom for more frugal tips.