My Homemade Laundry Liquid

For the past few years now, my Mumsy has been an Admin over at the Down To Earth Forum, working alongside some very lovely ladies including Rhonda Hetzel. And for years now, my Mumsy has been subtly hinting that there are some easy, cost effective changes I could be making around my home.

Three years later, I finally get the hint and made my own batch of laundry detergent. Very, very simple, took me less than half an hour to wash bottles and my bucket, heat some ingredients and five litres of homemade laundry liquid  into some bottles.

I only used about $1 worth of those ingredients (my shopping list cost about $12 so there’s plenty left for future batches). And if I was going to buy 5Ltr of Dynamo, I would pay $9 per litre. I just saved $44. Too lovely!

I halved the recipe to make 5 litres instead of 10 because let’s be honest, I was skeptical.

Funny story, as I began boiling some water for this recipe…I BURNED it. That’s right, the water in my pot was actually smoking not steaming. (Must have had some traces of bicarb in the pot left over from washing up!)

Ingredients

2 cup Lux Flakes
½ cup washing soda
½ cup bicarb (some recipe’s call for Borax…bicarb works and there’s some serious nasties in Borax)

This recipe will make TEN litres.

Just add the soap (flakes or grated), the bicarb, and washing soda to 1½ Litres of water and pop it on to boil. Gentle boil, lots of stirring.

Once everything had thoroughly and definitely dissolved, I moved from the kitchen into the laundry.

I had the kids fill up a bucket with water for me (about 9½ litres) and tipped my soapy mix in, gave it a big stir and…

Started pouring the laundry liquid into my pre-washed bottles.

For the record…. I do not drink Coke. Eugh! The Coke bottles belong to The Hubby who bravely palates the taste of Coke by mixing it with his scotch. However, I’ve recently discovered that Coke is one of those super cleaners – I’ve been using it to wash the toilet, the bath, it gets dried makeup off the bathroom basin…who knew!?

Bottles are labeled (including the ingredients in case a furry baby or one of the kids ingests it, I’ll have the ingredients on hand for when the Poisons InfoLine or Emergency Room triage nurse asks for them)

Shake well before use – the mixture will separate over time. For me…I’m quite happy to spend a few moments shaking my laundry liquid if it means saving $8 a bottle.

So there you have it. My clots are coming out clean for a fraction of the cost and I’ve just reduced the number of chemicals I’m bringing into my home.

The Moral of The Story

 In years gone by, I was a real sucker. I would get angry and disappointed with the things around me, often things I had no control over and I would take it out on any and everyone around me. One day, the hubby snapped. He’s always been a bit of a “suck it up” kind of person. He said to me that I was choosing to be this way.

Huh?  I was choosing to be angry and bitter and frustrated with my surroundings? The thought was preposterous, right?

And the scolding continued…

He reminded me about how people make themselves physically sick because they stress themselves out about the possibility that they might get cancer one day. They literally make themselves sick – the doctors, the hospitals, the works…just because they are constantly worrying about maybe getting sick at some point in the future.

After the argument (and over the years) I have given more thought to this truth that I didn’t want to hear that day. I thought to myself “Does it work both ways?”

Think about this for a moment, will you? If I sit there for half my life worrying about something terrible happening then it’s going to happen one day, right? And then I can tell everyone “I told you so,” but where does that leave me? Regretting the trouble free years I could have enjoyed.

But what about those “successful” people? What do they have that I don’t?

 

And I thought about this.

What does an Olympic Gold Medalist have that I don’t (besides the obvious…don’t be a smart arse)? And it occurred to me, they have a dream that they want to achieve and they have a self dialogue that supports that dream.

Every waking moment since this Olympic athlete made his decision to pursue his dream, he has spent those moments working his way towards it.

He lives, breathes and eats for it. Every part of his life, from his abstinence from drugs and alcohol, to his diet, to the best coach his money can buy…each decision pushes him – it literally forces him – towards his goal.

He spends every moment of everyday thinking about the day that he can represent his country.

And you know the best part….

Even when he ISN’T thinking about winning the gold, his subconscious has been preconditioned to think about it for him!

Everyday, he makes these little choices, makes these little teeny tiny baby steps towards his goal without even knowing it!

And when he finally succeeds he gets to tell the world “I’ve been preparing this day for a long time…I always knew I could do it…I was nervous, my competitor had me doubting myself for a moment but I always knew that I could pull it off as long as I tried,”

He knew it. Right in the very core of his being, he knew it.

His self dialogue was that little steam engine trying to get up the mountain…but on steroids. It didn’t say “I think I can, I think I can,”

It said “You know you can, You know you can,”

And everyday, because that gold medal was his hearts desire, he consistently made those steps towards his goal – whether it was a big step (like the hours of training each day) or just a little baby step (getting out and introducing himself to a sponsor)…little steps…

Conscious decisions and subconscious habits…

So…

THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS….

If thinking about getting sick one day in the future can result in you taking little subconscious baby steps towards getting sick in the future….

And dreaming about a gold medal all day, every day can result in making your take little subconscious baby steps towards the Olympics in the future…

What can thinking about a great, loving relationship do for you?

Or what if your ambition was to become…happy. That’s it, just happy.

Or to make everything (and everyone) you touch better?

That is my current goal…to make everything I touch…better.

When I’m old and lying on my death bed, I want my family to (rub my shoulders…stay away from my feet you know I don’t like people touching my feet…and) tell me that no matter what…

Whether I was pottering around in the garden…

Or playing with the kids…

Or painting one of my portraits…

Everything I touched…was better. I made my tiny little part of a big bad world…a better place.

So share your thoughts with me now… Some people call it “self fulfilled prophesy” others call is “the power of positive thinking” but what do you think? Are you a mind over matter person or are you waiting for your dreams to find you?

The Moral Of The Story

The Moral Of The Story…

In years gone by, I was a real sucker. I would get angry and disappointed with the things around me, often things I had no control over and I would take it out on any and everyone around me. One day, the hubby snapped. He’s always been a bit of a “suck it up” kind of person. He said to me that I was choosing to be this way. That I was choosing to be angry and bitter and frustrated with my surroundings? The thought was preposterous, right?

The scolding continued…

He reminded me about how people make themselves physically sick because they stress themselves out about the possibility that they might get cancer one day. They literally make themselves sick – the doctors, the hospitals, the works…just because they are constantly worrying about maybe getting sick at some point in the future.

After the argument (and over the years) I have given more thought to this truth that I didn’t want to hear that day. I thought to myself “Does it work both ways?”

Think about this for a moment, will you? If I sit there for half my life worrying about something terrible happening then it’s going to happen one day, right? And then I can tell everyone “I told you so,” and where does that leave me? Regretting the trouble free years I could have enjoyed.

But what about those “successful people? What do they have that I don’t?

And I thought about this.

What does an Olympic Gold Medalist have that I don’t (besides the obvious…don’t be a smart arse)? And it occurred to me, they have a dream that they want to achieve and they have a self dialogue that supports that dream.

Every waking moment since this Olympic athlete made his decision to pursue his dream, he has spent those moments working his way towards it.

He lives it, breathes, it eats for it. Every part of his life, from his abstinence from drugs and alcohol, to his diet, to the best coach his money can buy…each decision pushes him towards his goal.

He spends every moment of everyday thinking about the day that he can represent his country.

And you know the best part….

Even when he ISN’T thinking about winning the gold, his subconscious has been preconditioned to think about it for him!

Everyday, he makes these little choices, makes these little teeny tiny baby steps towards his goal without even knowing it!

And when he finally succeeds he gets to tell the world “I always knew I could do it…I was nervous, my competitor had me doubting myself for a moment but I always knew that I could pull it off as long as I tried. I’ve been preparing for this day for a long time and it’s so great to have finally be standing here today,”

He knew it. Right in the very core of his being, he knew it.

His self dialogue was that little steam engine trying to get up the mountain…but on steroids. It didn’t say “I think I can, I think I can,”

It said “You know you can, You know you can,”

And everyday, because that gold medal was his hearts desire, he consistently made those steps towards his goal – whether it was a big step (like the hours of training each day) or just a little baby step (getting out and introducing himself to a sponsor)…little  steps…conscious decisions and subconscious habits…

So…

THE MORAL OF THE STORY….

If thinking about getting sick one day on the future can result in you taking little subconscious, baby  steps towards getting sick in the future….

And dreaming about a gold medal all day, every day can result in making your take little subconscious, baby steps towards the Olympics in the future…

What can thinking about a great, loving relationship do for you?

Or what if your ambition was to become…happy. That’s it, just happy. To make everything (and everyone) you touch better?

That is my current goal…to make everything I touch…better.

When I’m old and lying on my death bed, I want my family to (rub my shoulders and) tell me that no matter what…

Whether I was pottering around in the garden…

Or playing with the kids…

Or painting one of my portraits…

Everything I touched…was better. I made my tiny little part of a big bad world…a better place.

And I DO think about THAT every day.