Most of us have at least a few articles of clothing that need to be dry cleaned. All that dry cleaning really adds up- especially if it is something you wear a lot! If you’re just sending stuff to the dry cleaner to be pressed and starched, the good news is- you can do it at home for about $1. Oh, and that $1 will last you at least 20 articles of clothing. This green, easy, DIY spray starch is not harmful to the environment or your health!

Enter DIY spray starch! It is inexpensive, easy to make, and most importantly- effective! And it isn’t limited just to dry clean only clothes. I also like to use it to help with some shirts that just always seem to wrinkle, even if I don’t let it sit in a pile of clean laundry for a long time (whoops).

Not to mention all the chemicals you are avoiding! Some of the stuff that dry cleaners use are WAY more harmful than you think. Perchloroethylene- or perc for short- is a carcinogen, and is one of the most commonly used dry cleaning chemicals. It is not only harmful to you when it’s on your clothes, but also the dry cleaners that handle and breathe it in. You may not be exposed to levels that will cause cancer- but it is also known to cause headaches, impair vision, and motor skills. Let’s just all agree that it’s better to avoid it!!

I thought this DIY spray starch would make a great addition to Green Cleaning Month!

For this DIY, you will need:

• Hot Water
• Corn Starch
• Essential oils (optional)

And that’s it! Gotta love simplicity!

So how do you make it? I’ll tell you!

I always recommend using a little test patch before you use this on an entire garment- I can’t see why it would be a problem, but better safe than sorry.

Some other DIY spray starch tutorials I’ve seen tell you to boil the water, but I found that unnecessary. The corn starch dissolved perfectly well for me in hot (not boiling) water. Less work is always preferred for me, and a little shaking or stirring is easier than boiling.

I have found this starch to do a good job! The only downside is you need to give it a little time to dry, since it is water based. But still- for the price, and because it is only natural healthy ingredients, I really can’t complain.

If you’re a fan of this DIY, you should definitely check out my homemade laundry detergent tabs!

Let me know how making your own spray starch goes for you!

supplies used in this post

The post DIY Spray Starch appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

There’s lots of good reasons to make your own laundry detergent. It’s less expensive, it has less irritants for the skin, it’s better for the environment, it has more natural ingredients, you name it.

When I started looking at homemade laundry detergent recipes, I noticed that they pretty much all use Fels Naptha laundry soap. Well, I went to read the ingredients in it and I wasn’t a huge fan. It contains titanium dioxide, which is harmful to the environment, and also has artificial colors and fragrances, two of my big no-nos.

Not only do I want to avoid artificial colors and fragrances for the reasons listed in my 13 ingredients to avoid, but for laundry-related reasons I have very sensitive skin and wouldn’t want to get irritation or a rash from the artificial fragrance. So I looked into recipes that had no Fels Naptha in it. I found this recipe from Measuring Flower that had no Borax or Fels Naptha. It mentions that it sometimes clumps, so I thought it was the perfect candidate to make into a tab!

And it only costs $3.23 to make 28 tabs. You can adjust the size to make them larger or smaller. I made mine on the larger side. So they’re definitely a good value.

I like to explain why I use each of my ingredients. Do you ever look at a label and wonder, what the heck is that and why do they need it in there? Well you won’t need that with my products.

• Baking Soda: Removes odor from clothes, removes a variety of stains
• Washing Soda: Alkaline compound that complements baking soda to remove stains. Also reduces the effects of hard water. (You can make it yourself from baking soda- see the tutorial here!)
• Castile Soap Bar: Removes dirt and stains from clothes. Made from vegetable fats and will not damage your washing machine or septic system
• Salt: Helps soften hard water and reduces mineral build up, and also helps clean dirt off clothes
• White Vinegar: Fabric softner and binds the tabs together
• Essential Oils: For scent, depending on the oils you choose may also have other beneficial properties like anti-bacterial or anti-fungal

I decided to grate my soap bar because I wanted to use my food processor to make the crust for my gluten free strawberry pie on the same day and I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to wash it. Well, let me tell you, it would have been a lot less work to wash the food processor than it was to grate the entire bar of soap. My arms got a little work out! So I recommend using the food processor unless you really like grating.

Here you can see what the tabs looked like before they were mixed and then after the vinegar was added. You can see it starting to clump up as the vinegar was added.

Be careful when you mix this, as washing soda can be an irritant if you breathe it in. I made the mistake of leaning over the bowl as I was mixing it and it was a little unpleasant.

Unfortunately, the heart-shaped tabs didn’t turn out. I think the silicon mold just wasn’t hard enough and I wasn’t able to press the tabs well enough so they didn’t take shape.

I filled the ice cube tray tabs about half way full, and the tabs were still pretty big. So you could do even less than that. Just make sure to really compact them down, or you will end up with powder instead of tabs!

I think my first attempt at making my own laundry detergent was successful. And I’m a fan of anything that saves time and doesn’t require me to measure out amounts. Just grab a tab and that’s it. Fast and easy. Oh, and the vinegar is a natural fabric softener, and it’s built into this recipe. Pretty awesome.

I am so excited to be rid of the chemicals in my laundry. You wear clothes and uses linens every day. And now I can rest assured knowing exactly what ingredients mine were cleaned in. That’s my favorite part of making my own cleaning products.

The tabs did a good job cleaning and didn’t leave any residue or odor. Exactly what I was looking for. And all natural and inexpensive to boot! Successful new creation.

Try making your own laundry detergent tabs and let me know how it goes for you!

supplies used in this post

Like this tutorial? You should check out my homemade dishwasher detergent tabs!

The post How to Make Laundry Detergent Tabs (Without Borax and Fels Naptha) appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

About once a month I wake up in the middle of the night and I just can’t fall back asleep. I don’t know what it is. I’m usually a great sleeper. Usually I just try to watch tv until the morning  and try to fall back asleep, but on the occasion that I have some energy, it’s actually a good time to get stuff done.

So, I had every intention of going back to sleep on Friday night and every intention of writing this post on a different topic, but making homemade washing soda was so easy and fun that I didn’t want to wait to write about it.

I decided to call this experiment “Susie’s five am crazy kitchen science.” Since I was actually intending to go back to sleep I forgot to take the eye cover off of my forehead.

sleepy but having fun!

I’ve seen washing soda in several recipes for homemade household cleaners, but I just haven’t bought any yet. I buy baking soda in bulk because I use it so often. So when I saw this tutorial from Living Almost Naturally on how to make homemade washing soda from baking soda I figured I could save myself a trip to the store, and it was totally worth it.

All you need to do this yourself is baking soda, a shallow oven-safe pan, and an oven.

Get your supplies together

Out of the oven

Even though it may not look very different, the texture will become grainier and the washing soda looks duller than baking soda.

Seriously, could that be any easier? (read as Chandler from Friends)

All you need to do after that is find a jar or container to store your washing soda in, and you are ready to use washing soda in other recipes!

And it’s done! That was easy.

Try out your new washing soda in my homemade dishwasher detergent tabs recipe!

The post Homemade washing soda from baking soda (for use in homemade laundry detergent and homemade dish detergent) appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.