The Adventures of DIY Discoveries

        Over the last two days I have been intrigued by the process of making your own homemade goods. Ranging from laundry detergent to refinishing furniture. I have found numerous blogs that I will be following to share with you what I've found.

       My first obsession was powdered laundry detergent. I didn't want to make the liquid because 1: the consistency was snotty and gross. 2: I didn't have enough containers to contain 5 gallons of detergent. I personally was getting tired of paying $12-$14 for a jug of tide and only getting 52 loads(he machines). Making my own detergent cost me roughly $1.59 for the laundering soap, $3.59 for the Super Washing Soap and $3.99 for the Borax. Now according to the recipe I followed you need 1/3 of the laundering soap ( I used Fels-Naptha) and a cup of each of the other two. Pretty simple. You grate the Fels-Naptha and then mix in the other two powders. In about 15 minutes you have about 64 loads of detergent. Now I doubled the recipe and got 128 loads from mine. I'm out of the bar soap but I have a good 3-4 cups left of each. Two more bars of soap at $1.59 ea and I can make between 192-256 loads of laundry for a total of $13.13. Now that's savings!!! That's less than one jug of Tide!!

                                                                         

       From there I thought to myself "If I can make laundry soap I can surely make dishwasher detergent". And guess what? You can!! All you need to two other ingredients: Citric Acid to help keep the dishes clear and white vinegar for a rinse agent. The Borax and Super Washing Soap will clean but leave your dishes cloudy. I haven't figured out the cost effectiveness yet but I can assure you that there will be some pretty good savings. 


      I also explored the realm of hard soap and liquid hand soap. I had purchased Ivory soap to help in the laundering process but I found out that it can leave whites dingy. So I wondered "What am I going to do with all of this soap?". Then I started looking online on how to turn bar soap into liquid hand soap. I have altered and combined two recipes. What yu'll need:


1 bar, grated soap(plain unscented white if you want to add dye or fragrance) Bramble Berry Bases are best
10-12c water
1 Stainless Steel Stock Pot
Hand Mixer
Container(s) to store soap in
Fragrance(optional)
Dyes(optional)


First: Fill your pot with water and heat until steaming. While that is happening grate your soap and prepare your oils and dyes. Once your water is steaming NOT boiling add your soap shavings. Let the soap melt( it should take about no time at all). Once your soap has melted, let the mixture cool for 5-10 minutes. After it has cooled add your oils and dyes. Mix with hand mixer. Cover your mixture and let sit over night. In the morning you're going to remix the soap. And then it will be ready for you to put into the storage containers! I stuck my extra soap in an old Ginger Ale two liter bottle.  
Super easy I know!! And I did use Ivory soap but it is really soft and all the oils are already infused so I didn't have to add anything for moisture. I bought a pack of 10 for $4.59 at Walmart. One bar made over two liters of liquid soap. How much do you pay for hand soap?

                                                                                  


       My next adventure entailed 32oz of glycerin soap base that yielded 9-3oz bars of soap.
Cost of everything: Glycerin 32oz tray $11.99 at AC Moore, Fragrance oil $2.00ea. I bought 3 of those. And household exfoliants, ground oatmeal and ground coffee.
My first attempt at the melt n' pour soap making method came out alright. I made a 3oz bar of lightly scented oatmeal soap. I ground up 1tbsp of oatmeal, melted 3oz glycerin base and added a few drops of fragrance mixed and poured into a mold and let it sit for 30-40 minutes and it was done!! The next batch was well, weird. I followed the same recipe but I tripled the glycerine base and the oatmeal, but I also added ground coffee beans and a little vanilla extract. The end result? I smelled like glycerin and coffee. Tip: Make sure that you add enough fragrance to cover the glycerin smell. My last batch you could eat it came out so well. I melted the rest of the glycerin base, about 16-17oz. After it was melted I added a cranberry mandarine fragrance oil. That was it!! I poured it into a mold and let it cool. It came out perfectly!! It smells so good and the best part, my husband LOVES it!!!!