Stuff I found on Pinterest...and MADE

(picture courtesy of http://www.yellowbrickhome.com/2011/03/16/diy-suds/)

So I've been doing a lot of DIY stuff in the interest of saving a few bucks.  One of my biggest money grubbers was laundry detergent because I do like, 500 loads a day.  Seriously though, I do about 15 loads a week. I can burn through a regular bottle pretty quickly. SO, making my own laundry soap was first on my to-do list.  Laundry soap can be done two ways...made into a liquid form, or made into a powder. After reading 800 blogs that described each process, I decided that liquid was just too complex and time consuming for me, and I was all about making some powder.  I was able to find all three ingredients I needed a Wal-mart....super easy. 

So, the recipe varies slightly from blog to blog, but this is what I used.

2 cups Borax

2 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda...we are not cooking!)

1 entire bar of Fels Naptha washing soap

Two instructions: grate bar of soap with cheese grater, mix all the ingredients. BAM! You're done.  I put mine in a cute glass container and stuck it in the laundry room. I use one-two TBSP per load of wash and so far so good!! The only catch is I hate the way it smells...smells like old people soap.  I do still use store-bought fabric softener to mask it and it works just fine.

So, total cost: $11...and I still have half a box of Borax and Washing Soda to go!  Next time I need soap, I only have to buy the bar of soap. AWESOME savings. Yay me! (you know, and all those other peeps out there who figure this out long before me).  :)   (Oh, and we have an HE washer, and it has not caused ANY problems)

The Laundry Room

I spend a RIDICULOUS amount of time doing laundry.  It is a constant, never ending flow of clothing.  Our laundry room used to be Oscar's bedroom before he died.  He was funny like that...he had some form of anxiety that if left to roam the halls at night, he'd howl. I learned early on that rather than cuddling with us and having free range of the house, he much preferred to be "tucked in" and left alone for the night.
Anyhoo! Due to the tumor on his ear, he was leaking a lot of blood...and while I got it up, the walls of the laundry room are now dingy and need to be painted. This is my plan:

Ok, so this is actually my ribbon color chart, but the room color is ON here, so I'm gonna use it! Its the one on the bottom row, fifth from the left. That nice, toasty brownish, gray...

 I found these printables on pinterest.com  (best website EVERY for EVERYTHING). Need craft ideas? Done. Recipes? Done. You name it, its on there! Here is the actual link.

 This I'll be ordering from etsy

 And this is another printable I found on Pinterest...but I printed it in turquoise to match the other one. I stuck them both in simple white frames so that they'll stand out from the brown wall.

 And this lovely little project is for the hubs. As much as I admire power tools and like to hold them and press the buttons and stuff, I leave the actual creating to him. The tutorial for that is here . I'm going to do mine side by side instead of on top of each other b/c then I'm going to install one of those white wire shelves so that I can hang our clothes on it instead of in the bathrooms! (yes, I do have a dryer, but our stuff lasts so much longer when its air dried, and seeing as it has to be handed down to two more kids, I like to try and keep it in good shape...they do enough damage on their own!) :)

So thats my plan for my new and improved laundry room. I figure if I have to spend time in there, I might as well make the space pleasant!