When I first started using Pinterest and saw some people with 5,000 pins, I thought to myself, "Holy cow. I'm never going to let myself get that obsessed." It wasn't so much that I wanted to not pin things, it was that I didn't want to pin a lot of things and then not use them or even look at them ever again. I wanted to feel like Pinterest gave me more ideas that I would actually INCORPORATE into my life (so that I could justify that it was productive, right?). So my goal was to have at least 10% of my pins be ones that I accomplished and liked (under a separate board of "Pins I Will Do Again"). I was doing pretty well for awhile... but now I'm quickly becoming a hypocrite with (as of right this second) 1,519 pins and only 90 under my finished pins board. To give myself some credit though, I've tried more pins than that; the 90 are just the ones I tried and liked.
So in an attempt to motivate myself to get off my lazy pregnant duff and inspired by Jennifer at The Craft Patch (okay so I'm totally copying her), I've decided to do my own Pinterest Test Series. My posts will be either Pintests or Pinmimics (and yes I totally made up both of those words). The bonus is that if you have the same thing pinned, you can learn from my successes/failures so you do/don't have to do the same pin if it's one of your thousands!
After that super long introduction, here is my first post:
I have tried out 2 different homemade laundry detergent "recipes" from Pinterest. The first one I didn't like so much. So you can imagine my hubby's surprise when he came home one day and I'd made another homemade laundry detergent. :) What can I say, I'm persistent about trying to be frugal.
So here are the two I tried (there are a lot more recipes out there):
Now if you look at the two pins, these are almost the same recipes. But I feel like for me, the How Does She tutorial wins.
The first thing you have to remember is that neither of these detergents are "sud" detergents. Meaning, the water doesn't get all bubbly when it hits this soap so you wonder if there's something wrong. But did you know that non-sudsy soap is better for your washer? And because these don't sud, you can use them in place of HE detergents.
That was the first thing I had to get used to. The reason I stopped making the first detergent? Because I felt like it did the job, but I missed the good-smell of store-bought laundry detergents. It wasn't as if our clothes smelled bad, they just didn't smell like anything. And let's be honest, the only rewarding part of laundry is pulling out those clothes from the dryer and smelling that wonderful clean-laundry smell.
So that is why when I found the How Does She tutorial and saw that it called for Purex fabric softener crystals which smell really good (and actually help clean your clothes), I decided to try it again. And I feel like it is not only cheaper and better for my washer, but also pleases my nose as well. Besides, I agree with her friend that it looks super cute in the Purex container, which is important to me since I don't have any closed shelving in my laundry room.
The only tip I have that she doesn't mention in the tutorial (I think) is this: Mix it in the bucket outside. I did this in my kitchen and it stunk up my kitchen for 2 days. And not in a pleasant laundry smell, but an overpowering aroma.
As you look at the tutorial, you'll most likely wonder the same thing as I did: How in the heavens did she have enough patience to hand grate those bars of Zote (I used Fels Naptha instead by the way). I have no clue, but I'm lucky enough to have a food processor (one of the necessities for me when I make my own spaghetti/salsa to can). I hope you have one too if you want to try this!
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