DIY laundry detergent

Many of you know, but I've been on a homemade kick since before Jemma was born. I've gotten away from using commercial cleaners and pretty much make my own with a mix of water, soap, washing soda, borax, baking soda, and vinegar. Anywhoo, the only thing I hadn't jumped into was detergent. Having heard good things about a family recipe I decided to give it a try. I ended up modifying the recipe I was given as I just don't have the space to store gallons of liquid detergent and Tom prefers powder detergent.  I'm including both recipes below.

Pope Family Recipe (Thank you Grandma, Aunt Margie and Aunt Sharon!)
Ingredients: ZOTE soap, Borax, Washing Soda; Water
Grate 1/3 bar of ZOTE soap, put in a pan with 6 cups of water and heat until soap is melted. Add 1/2 cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of washing soda. Stir to dissolve. Remove from heat; add 4 cups of hot water in a bucket, add soap mixture; stir. Then add an additional 1 gallon plus 6 cups of cold water; stir. Let it sit for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Pour into empty detergent or softener bottles.

Notes: I couldn't find Zote soap, so I used Fels Naptha. The consistentcy will not be a smooth gel and should be shaken before each use.

My Recipe
As I said, I didn't have enough room to store the 2 gallons of liquid, not to mention I was impatient to use it! When I started grating the Fels Naptha at home, Tom started having an allergic reaction to it, so I knew this wouldn't work for us! He is extremely sensitive to chemical fragrances. One of my friends uses a similar recipe with castile soap, so I bought a bar of Dr. Bronner's peppermint instead. He seemed to tolerate that just fine :)

Ingredients: Castile bar soap, Borax, Washing Soda
Grate the soap and mix with equal parts borax and washing soda.  I did 1 cup of each.  Use 1 tbsp per load.

Notes: Working well so far! I haven't noticed any difference in cleaning, even with our cloth diapers. I also use vinegar in place of fabric softener and the occasional cup of bleach for whitening.

How having a baby changed my perspective, AND how to make your own cleaners

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I'm going to start adding some more posts here about me, Tom, our stuff. I've been having a hard time coming up with things to say about Jemma on a frequent basis. Don't get me wrong, she's adorable, and I love her dearly, but mostly her days consist of eat, play, sleep. You can only talk about that so many ways. So, I've opted to start adding some things about our parenting and lifestyle, mostly because Jemma has had such a profound impact on my view of the world. She's kinda turning me into a hippie, frankly. Before Jemma, I never put much thought into what or how I ate, what kind of cleaners and toileteries I used, what kind of impact I was having on the world. Now, I have someone to worry about, someone who needs me to be healthy, needs me to protect her, someone to leave a legacy for. I want to leave her with the best world that I can.

When I first got pregnant, I had just read Marly and Me (awesome book, by the way). In it, the author's wife has a miscarriage shortly after using some heavy duty chemical cleaners, and although the doctors said that didn't have anything to do with it, the couple was convinced it did. Being newly pregnant, this scared the dickens out of me, so I started looking for some more "green" alternatives to my household cleaners. I searched loads of websites and found that I could make safe gentle cleaners on my own! And on top of it, it was super cheap!

I've been making my own cleaner for over 2 years now, and I would not go back to buying commercial products. In fact, I bought some bathroom cleaner a few months ago because I could not get rid of this mold in our grout, but the smell made me so dizzy I got rid of it. (Fixed the mold problem with bleach, by the way) This weekend I made everything I'll need for several months, and I did it in a few hours with things I keep at home. I wanted to share my recipes and show you how simple and easy this is. I purchased some essential oils at Cincinnati Natural Foods, but really they are not necessary, they just add a pretty smell :)

My ingredients!


Supplies!


All-Purpose Cleaner:
1/2 tsp castile soap (I use Dr. Bronner's in Peppermint)
1/2 tsp washing soda
1 tsp Borax
1 cup water
*optional* 10 drops essential oil of your choice

Toilet Bowl Cleaner:
1 cup water
1/2 cup soap (I like Dawn for this)
1 cup bleach *The bathroom is the only place I use bleach and only because our toilet bowl seems to grow this obnoxious mold I cannot get rid of in any other way)

Window Cleaner:
1 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 tsp castile soap

Soft Scrub - Baking soda mixed with liquid soap to a frosting like texture.

Deodorizer - for the trash cans, carpet, etc. - BAKING SODA! Sprinkle and let it be or vacuum if it was put on carpet. Sometimes I mix some essential oil with the baking soda before I sprinkle it if I'm wanting to smell something pretty.

Those are the main cleaners I use for everything. I've learned to use vinegar, baking soda, and soap to clean. There are lots of nice alterantives at the store, too, but they cost a lot more and really, this is so easy. My friend makes her own laundry detergent and I can't wait to try that out. I'd also love to learn to make my own soap!

On a side note, I'm on the lookout for a kid-friendly bug spray, so if anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear it! Jemma is a mosiquito magnet.

Finding the Cloth Love

I'm going to make a startling announcement. I enjoy cloth diapering Jemma! Crazy, I know! Who thought anyone would ever say they like to diaper their child? Certainly not me! Now, I'm not saying I love poopy diapers, but cloth diapers are at least fun. Disposables are just diapers. They all look the same and they're kind of ugly. Cloth diapers are cute! At least ours are. Well, actually the cloth diapers we use aren't all that exciting since they come from the service, but our diaper covers are bright and fun. They do make colored diapers, but I don't have to buy my own. Jemma currently has a few different types of covers, but we mainly use Thirsties. They work fantastically, and are so adorable. She has pink, lilac, orange, and yellow. At night, we use fleece covers, but I don't have a picture of her in those. I'll get one soon. They are huge and fluffy, and I love her little fluffy bum!

I'm currently coveting some fleece soakers for our diaper stash. They are covers for the day, but are kind of like little pants to wear over the diapers and then you don't have to wear other pants. They are nice and soft and apparently great for warmer weather so baby doesn't have to wear so many layers. You can also get little sets with matching t-shirts like these from Monster Fluff Studios which I am totally in love with:

While on the cding topic, I also have to rave about our diaper service, Good Natured Baby. It is so nice to never have to worry about having enough diapers (we get 100 a week!) or wipes (we're also using cloth wipes). I am so thankful that there is a service in our area. I think I would still be cding if I didn't have the diaper service, but it is so convenient. The cost is roughly the equivalent of buying disposables. I have thought about just buying prefolds and doing the laundry myself to save on costs, but until that is really necessary, I'm not going down that road!

Pampered Friday

Today I got to go to Becoming Mom spa in Mason for a pregnancy massage and pedicure. It was W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L! I feel awesome! My darling husband got me a package for Christmas because I have been having a lot more back pain and this was fantastic. I loved it! My massage therapist was sweet and it was really relaxing. The therapists are specially trained in pregnancy massage and specifically third trimester massage. I did not know this, but apparently certain points are believed to induce labor, so most massage therapists will not perform a third trimester massage. Who knew? Tom put a lot of effort into researching and finding this place, so it was really special for me. It was an awesome present.

The pedicure was really great too because I haven't had a chance to pamper my feet in a while - simply because I can't reach them very well. So if you are looking for a great gift for a pregnant mom in your life, I highly recommend this place - they are great. And the best part is they use safe products. While I was there I picked up some Zoya nail polish - it is free of all those yucky chemicals. Awesome!

Heads Up - Registry Change!

Just wanted to post a note that I changed my diaper registry to Wildflower Diapers instead of Nicki's Diapers. They had more of the covers that I wanted. You will need to have a password to see the registry and that is babypope. I will try to link it without the password under the registries section in the left blog column.

And the answer is...

Cloth. Yes, I can't believe we are committing to this, but Tom and I have decided to go ahead and try the cloth route. Believe me, a lot of research went into this!! There is a diaper service here in Cincinnati called Good Natured Baby (http://www.goodnaturedbaby.com), and it will be about the same cost, if not cheaper than disposables. By the way, thanks to Ashley for recommending them! We are hoping this will be a good compromise for us. If it turns out to be too much we will look for other options, but this is what is looking like the right course for us. I think the main reasons we decided to do this is to reduce our environmental impact and for the health of our baby. It will definitely be less convenient, but that's okay. We are willing to make the sacrifice if it is better for everybody.

The Diaper Dilemma

And so, my current thoughts have turned to diapering...Tom and I both hate the thought of creating thousands of pounds of trash with disposables, but the thought of cloth diapers is a little scary, mostly because I don't have any experience with those. I have been doing a lot of research and there are a lot more options than pins and plastic covers. In fact, a lot of the cloth diapers are really cute. There are much more benefits to them, including health of the baby, decreased cost, improving the environment. Oh, but the convenience of disposables!! I am wondering if anyone has any experience or advice they would like to offer - things we should consider that we may not think of? We would appreciate the input :)