It is safe to say that this summer has been pretty darn eventful.

Let’s see…

• Our friends Corri & Brett moved down the street.
• Blessed with a little nephew! (After four neices…welcome to the world, Drew Minnuto!)
• Traveled to the glorious Seattle to see my (equally glorious) brother Dave.
• Ran the Seattle Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon/Half Marathon.
• Spent a heavenly week on Kiawah Island.
• Became 95 percent vegetarian (baby steps).
• Got a new job within my company (eMarketing Specialist, what whatttt).
• Made homemade laundry detergent.

I know what you’re thinking:

“You made homemade laundry detergent!?!”

CRAZY RIGHT?

(I hope to tell you all about all the other things at some point, but for now, let’s talk so fresh and so clean.)

My journey to homemade laundry detergent began, as most of my “journeys” do, at the grocery store.  While walking up and down the aisles of Harris Teeter one fine afternoon, I was appalled to see how high the prices of laundry detergent have climbed. $7.99 for that small tub of Tide? Are you kidding me? I’d rather just use my Tide-to-Go pen vs. actually washing the garment, thankyouverymuch. (I don’t always do that. Just sometimes. But not always.)

Even the Harris Teeter generic brand was pricey. I figured I would hold out until we traveled to Wegmans the next day, but I was even more heartbroken to see that even my beloved Wegs had shelves full of expensive detergent. Defeated, I resorted to my  alcohol college shopping knowledge and only paid attention to those items on the bottom shelf. I slugged off with the cheapest brand I could find, only to discover while washing clothes later that night that it basically was blue-colored water. (Just as I discovered during my freshman year that Crystal Palace was basically vodka-infused nail polish remover). Something had to change, because Lord knows I wasn’t deducting money from my cereal fund to buy high-quality detergent. Plus, I rarely spill bowls of cereal all over my clothes. Just on the floor.

Alas, one morning I was reading through my never-ending list of favorite blogs when I spotted that The Burlap Bag (best.blog.name.ever) – posted a “DIY Laundry Detergent” recipe.  (The masterminds of this blog have also shared posts on DIY dishwasher detergent, liquid soap,  air fresheners plus ridiculous tips like storing bobby pins in a tic-tac container, shaving pills off fabric with a hand razor and  making hard boiled eggs in the oven.  If you leave my blog to spend hours on theirs, I will take no offense whatsoever.)

The “recipe” was really simple – just three ingredients, four easy steps and wah-lah: 64 loads of laundry detergent for $3!

PLUS, another opportunity to use a mason jar. WINNING!

Or should I say, WASHING!!

DIY Laundry Detergent

Ingredients:

• 1 cup borax
• 1 cup washing soda
• 1 bar of soap (I used Dove)

(You’ll have plenty of borax and washing soda leftover…all the better to make more detergent with! Because seriously…laundry is a lifelong chore. )

Directions:

1) Using a cheese grater, grate bar of soap into a large bowl.

2) Pour in one cup of borax.

3) Pour in one cup of washing soda.

4) Mix with a wooden spoon for a couple of minutes until the soap breaks down.

Store in container of your choice. One tablespoon = one load of laundry. I have been putting in two tablespoons per load, as we have been running a lot…and I don’t think you can ever be too clean.

Or own too many mason jars.