Bits and Pieces

As many of you know, I have been moving toward more natural cleaners in our home, as well as trying to make more real food choices. We don’t have any expensive wood furniture in our home, but the pieces we do have are dear to me (the garage sale coffee table that my Dad refinished for my first apartment, my great grandfather’s rocking chair, my mother in law’s china cabinet, and my high chair that my grandfather had handmade for me.) So when it comes to polishing our furniture, I had begun using olive oil instead of commercial polish. I was pretty happy with the results, but it still felt like some of the pieces needed more.

I was super excited to see this post on Crunchy Betty about making your own furniture polish, especially since I had the ingredients and could make some RIGHT AWAY! So I mixed up a batch and used it on the furniture in the living room. (Note: I actually used more olive oil than is called for, when my batch first cooled it was a little too firm for my liking. I just re-melted and used more olive oil.)

I was not impressed with the results right away. As much as I rubbed, the furniture still looked a little cloudy and streaky. I decided to wait a little while and see if things soaked in a little bit. And boy did they! My coffee and sofa tables have never gleamed like they do now!

So today, I decided to get my high chair and give it a good rub down and see if I could breathe some life into it. It took me about 20 minutes to rub it by hand into all the little nooks and crannies, and then rub it down with a micro fiber cloth, but I am super happy with the results!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       (before and after cell phone pics)

I look forward to adding this polish to my cleaning arsenal, and giving all our wood furniture a good polish every six months or so. Be sure to pop over to Crunchy Betty and grab the recipe, and check out her amazing results with her wooden bowls!

I do not subscribe to the theory that if something is natural it is worth paying more money. That actually irritates me a great deal. If you know me at all, you know that I enjoy things that are natural and inexpensive. If I can make it myself, even better.

So over the years, I have tried several different “recipes” for making my own natural, inexpensive dishwasher detergent. I have tried using borax and washing soda . Besides the fact it didn’t work well long term, I am no longer comfortable using borax in our home, especially on our dishes. I have even tried using my beloved soap nuts. But nothing worked well long term. However, I really wanted to get away from all of the phosphates and chlorine in traditional detergents,  so after reading about it on several other blogs, I finally bit the bullet and tried Biokleen Automatic Dish Powder about a year ago.

The health food store where I purchased my first container was having a sale, but still, there was some sticker shock! (Currently $11.73 on Amazon) But I figured I could try using less than the recommended amount (always a good practice with anything- cleaners, medication, etc.) We started out using 1 tbs of powder, which is half the recommended amount. We now use 1/2 tbs and are still REALLY happy with how well this works for us. Now in the interest of full disclosure, our dishes are rinsed pretty well before being put in the dishwasher, but I have read on other sites about people that have great results without rinsing.

Still, is it worth paying almost TWELVE dollars for dish soap? YES- because we use so little, we can make 1 container last almost 4 months! (I know this because I am a total geek and wrote the date we began our last container on the side). We started our current container October 19th, and we have about 4-5 more loads left.

So, I can totally justify making this switch. Not only is it SO MUCH BETTER for our health, our budget doesn’t suffer either.

In my first post about soap nuts I told you a lot about the nuts themselves and pricing information.

Now that I have been happily using them for a while, I thought I would share with you a review of sorts.

In the laundry, I have been very pleased. I am easily getting 7 washings out of a batch (five soap nuts). I only use cold water, so when I first use a batch I let it soak in a pint jar of  hot water for about five minutes, then I pour the water and the soap nuts in the washer.

After 7 or so washings, they go in a small pot on the stove with a little water and I make liquid concentrate. Warming the liquid to a boil and letting it steep all night seems to work well. I still have not had a soapnut that I would consider all used up, but after this, I really feel that I have gotten my money’s worth out them and I toss them out. (I do mash them as I am making the concentrate.)

My first batch of concentrate ( a weak one) worked really well for cleaning counters and mirrors, and hand washing dishes. I was not happy long term with the results in the dishwasher. I am hoping to try a stronger solution and see if I get good results, I’ll keep you posted.

Some things to remember:

Soapnuts are not a miracle detergent. Your laundry will not appear any cleaner than before, just clean. I still use an oxygen bleach like Oxiclean with each load.

Soapnuts are not a stain remover. Stains especially greasy ones, require pretreating.

Soapnuts have sweet smell to them, and the wet clothes from the washer will smell like them, but when dry, there is no scent, just clean and fresh.

There is very little sudsing with soapnuts, but if you take a peek in your washer while it is agitating, you will see it working.

I have been reading quite a bit about soap nuts around the internet. Many of the blogs I read deal with natural, frugal living and that includes making home made cleaners. One of the most popular tips I have come across is making your own laundry detergent using borax, washing soda and a bar of soap. Now, there are concerns that the borax isn’t really healthy to be using either. You can read more about borax concerns here and here.

Here is the company I have chosen to purchase from, after reading many reviews on the Internet.

NaturOil I have no experience with the company other than what I have read on blogs I frequent.I first read about them here at Passionate Homemaking. The writer has used other brands including the Maggie’s brand, but prefers the NaturOil, saying the are a better quality product. They sell a different variety, and the photos on their Amazon listing do look fresher than other photos I have seen. However In the interest of full disclosure, she is an affiliate for them. But she is also a godly woman and I trust her recommendation, and am happy to help her in her frugal journey.

It is my hope that I will be happy with the way that soap nuts clean, enough so that it can replace all my current cleaners. If it does, I will be buying in a very large quantity to help get my cost under 10 cents a load of laundry. Not as cheap as the home made laundry soap, but within an amount that my husband and I are comfortable with. Additionally, we use cold water to wash and I have read that can extend the life of the soap nut even further.

Here is the pricing break down:

4 oz (40 loads) 9.95

8 oz (80 loads) 12.75

16 oz (160 loads) 18.95

32 oz (320 loads) 28.95

48 oz (480 loads) 45.95

64 oz (640 loads) 58.95

Price comparison:

Tide 24 loads $10.15  (42 cents a load)

Purex 32 loads $7.00  (22 cents a load)

********If you are interested in trying a batch of these for yourself, please let me know, I am happy to share with you if you wouldn’t mind pitching in a dollar to pay for the cost of the muslin bag for your sample.*********

If you have read this far-THANK YOU, I am really passionate about finding things to use around my home that are not harmful to us or our pets, and using something of God’s creation I think is even more exciting.

I just ran across a great new (to me) blog called Once a Month Mom.I do not really “do” OAMC anymore, but I do incorporate some of its principles in my kitchen. One of those is browing all my ground beef at once.

Check out this post at OAMM for her fantastic tip that I plan to try next time I buy hamburger.

from the King’s Missus, some great tips for planning ahead in our homemaking.

What are some tips for becoming more prepared? If you are totally new to being prepared, I suggest trying some of these ideas and incorporating them bit by bit (not all at once) into your life:

*Rising early to have time with God and prepare for the day
*Using a daily list (whether in your head or on paper), a home management binder, Daily Docket, or schedule to map out your day and write down things that need to be done
*Make supper in the morning so when the “pit hour” comes and all the kids are crying you can just heat it up!
*Making a Master List of your family’s favorite 50 meals that you can consult when you need menu-planning ideas
*Getting into the habit of making a weekly menu-plan and shopping once a week or less
*Making up a Master Packing List to look over when you are packing for trips so you don’t forget those important items for each person in the family
*Making a Master Grocery List as my friend Heather did to help avoid forgetting items on shopping trips
*Having a weekly “stock-the-diaper-bag” routine where you make sure there are a few outfits, a few diapers and some wipes, and some toys, etc. It’s no use taking a diaper bag if it’s not stocked!
*Making a weekly schedule or routine for activities you can do with your child (playdough one day, painting the next, etc.)
*Setting out the cups/bowls/cereal/bread the night before so breakfast goes smoothly
*When chicken goes on sale, cook 4-6# of it in a crockpot or in a roasting pan in the oven. Cool it, chop or shred it, and freeze it for a handy addition to meals when you are cooking. Do the same for cooking hamburger, dried beans, etc.
*Do a Baking Day to prep snacks and breads for your family so they are easily accesible.
*Buying a freezer chest that you can use to buy ahead when things go on sale.
*Having an emergency kit in the car, first aid kit in the house, and fire extinguisher handy.
*Pack a Park-Kit for the trunk of your car. Going to the park all the time in the summer? Don’t want to fuss with packing snacks and drinks every time? Fill an empty diaper box with crackers, bottled water, wipes, band-aids, sunscreen, sun hats, a blanket, sunglasses, kleenex, sand toys, etc. and then you will have it handy if you need it. Of course you will have to restock it now and then though!
*Have a few outfits that are older or faded that you were going to toss or give to the thrift store? Stash one outfit per person in your trunk of your car. Then, when you are at a picnic and your kid wets on you or you discover you forgot to stock the diaper bag, you won’t have to drive home! Just remember to put them back in the trunk of the car after you wash them.
*Back up all of your photos and home videos on CDs/DVDs/Memory card, etc. and keep them in a fireproof box with your important documents.
*Make a Travel Bag and fill with activities that your kids can do on long car trips.

*Pack separate bags for each day for a vacation. I love this idea I found online a while back! Instead of having 5 separate suitcases which Dad has to haul into the tent/hotel every day, pack an outfit for each person in one brown bag or tote bag, labeled DAY ONE. Then you just have to bring in blankets, diapers, the bathroom bag, and the DAY ONE bag. We do this now on some vacations/trips and it’s so nice to have everyone’s swimsuit handy in the swim bag when you want to go to the lake or pool or a church bag fully stocked with church outfits.
*Make a gift stash and add to it as you find great new stuff for cheap at yard sales, or on clearance. Then you can “shop at home” for someone when you want to bless someone who is having a hard day or give someone a birthday surprise.

At Simple Kids, Megan shares some great tips for stain removal. If you are anything like our family, you can use these great tips too. Katie and I are chronic shirt stainers, LOL! And my mom mentioned the other day she does it all the time too, so I guess it just a thing for the women in our family,

I also want to add my own secret ingredient that gets out A LOT of stains: Grandma’s Secret Spot Remover. It can be found in fabirc stores like Hancock, JoAnn, and I saw it once at Hobby Lobby by the fabric cutting table. The only drawback is the bottle is a little hard to squeeze, but it does work wonders.

Here’s more tips gathered at Simple Kids:

Simplemom writes a great post today:

There are times when getting something done involves doing it as quickly as possible. And there are times when it involves clearing off the table, and doing it from scratch.

The task might take more time, and even sometimes (but not often), it’s more expensive. But to do something yourself – to completely finish a task starting from scratch, embodies simplicity. After all, simplicity simply means “freedom from complexity,” and handmade pays homage to the craft and task of doing a skill well.

There are a number of skills that are a dying art. In a microwave culture, certain skills require crock pot patience, and not many home managers can afford such luxuries as time. But simple moms, home managers who yearn for simplicity in their lives, should take the time to learn a few.

I’d hate to see certain time-tested skills fade away with our grandparents’ generation. Let’s celebrate the beauty, the honor, and the tradition of managing a home and cultivating a family by learning the “tricks of the trade” the long way.

Click on the link above to continue reading.

So today I decided to get organized about our Thanksgiving dinner.  I made a master shopping list, and a menu, and printed all my recipes and put them in a notebook with page protectors.  I plan on doing a lot of the cooking ahead of time this week, and then I can check the items off of my menu.

I also plan on getting out each of my serving items and placing a post note on them, with what goes in each dish.  I will do that as they get washed.  I have done this in the past and it is a huge help.

What things are you doing to make things run more smoothly at your home this week?