Saturday, July 17, 2010

Winter Washing


I've always been mildly obsessed with doing laundry. It's ridiculously satisfying getting a sunny, breezy day in the middle of winter and having a load swing around on the line. We've made the move to using homemade laundry powder recently, partly inspired by the book Make Your Place, which has all sorts of wicked recipes for natural first aid, cleaning and body care. I love it so much I'm giving away copies as wee gifts now.

There are a lot of free recipes for natural cleaners on the interwebs but here's one for laundry powder.

HOMEMADE LAUNDRY POWDER
1/c cup baking soda
1/2 cup powdered castile soap (I use Dr Bronners, or a NZ handmade laundry soap but Sunlight may do the trick as well)
1/4 cup washing soda
1/4 cup borax

Mix ingredients well, and you can add your favourite essential oils. Mine is lavender;-)

I buy my baking soda in bulk from Moore Wilsons as we don't have a local Binn Inn. I've been getting my washing soda and borax off a seller on Trademe. The washing soda is finely powdered unlike the box at the supermarket and the borax is cheaper than from your local chemist.

We've also made our own laundry whitener with Prussian Blue pigment and baking soda.

I just need to get some pretty labels for my jars now. Give it a go!