Since we live in our oh so humble abode, we do not have a washer and dryer in our apartment. That means that I get to go to the beloved laundromat. I do our laundry every week, rain or shine, wether I want to or not. I just can’t stand having a house full of dirty clothes, especially since it’s now two people’s clothing. That means that I have to take all of our laundry down 2 flights of stairs (2 & 1/2 when the car is parked in the underground car port.) So I had to come up with some tricks to make this a little easier. I carry our laundry down in 3 of these Ikea bigs. I love them because they carry a lot. I can throw them over my shoulder and carry all of it at once. Our clothes, towels, and sheets are already separated since our hamper is one with separate bags. That makes it better when I have to get up at 6 am to do the laundry…yep sometimes I get up that early to do it before work and to avoid the crowds.
The nice thing about going to the laundromat is I can get everything washed and dried at the same time. So the whole process is done within 1 &1/2 hrs. I fold all of my clothes at the laundromat, then I bring it home and put it away immediately. If I waited until later, it probably wouldn’t get done in a timely manner.
The laundromat struggle is real guys for a germaphobe like me. So I won’t use the table to fold my clothes, I fold them at the dryer. I know, it probably doesn’t make sense since there are germs everywhere there. But this makes me feel like I have at least a teeny tiny bit of control in this situation. This is part of why I have to avoid crowds. I mean it would be rude to take up dryers that someone else needed.
How do I get these clothes cleaned naturally? I use my DIY Laundry Powder.
It smells good ya’ll, it smells real good. I also use Mrs. Meyers Dryer sheets which are the same scent as my powder. As you can see, these sheets are different than your average dryer sheets. But after I used them for a bit, I got used to them and I like them. They are pretty pricey too. It’s $8 for 70 sheets at Target. However I used to use several sheets of the old stuff. So the cost kind of balances out.
To cut down on all the heavy items that I need to carry, I just bring enough laundry powder for the day. That means about 10 tablespoon sized scoops total which I carry in a small snack size zip top bag which I reuse. When I first began to make my own laundry powder, I had to play around with the recipe a bit. (Let’s not even go into my very first homemade laundry liquid detergent which was a TOTAL FLOP!) Here’s the thing, this powder works a little differently for home machines than laundromat machines. The key is to put it in directly with your clothes. Most larger capacity laundromat machines instruct you to put the powder in a separate compartment. But this dilutes the homemade powder and makes it less potent.
DIY Laundry Powder Ingredients:
Borax
Super Washing Soda
Mrs. Meyers Scent Booster Crystals (If you don’t care about going totally natural, you can use other brands which are a lot cheaper.)
Zote Flakes (Let me tell you, when I found these Zote Flakes at Walmart I was so excited! I was not looking forward to grating bars of soap so this saved me a lot of time and effort)
Recipe: (Keep in mind this recipe can be modified depending on the size of your container)
1 Full Box of Zote Flakes
3 Cups of Super Washing Soda
3 Cups of Borax
1/2 Container of Mrs. Meyers Scent Booster
Mix all ingredients until combined well. That’s all, it can be done in less than 10 minutes! If you prefer a stronger scent, add all of the scent booster. (I am trying to stretch it as much as possible. The bottle is about $10 making it the most expensive purchase for this.)
You can use 2 tablespoon sized scoops for a regular load and 3-4 tablespoon sized scoops for larger loads.
If this exact recipe doesn’t wow you at first, fiddle with it a bit. I used several recipes that I found on Pinterest to come up with this. But it took a few tries for me to make it fit my needs. Remember, “going natural” takes some trial and error. But now I love this stuff, and I don’t plan to go back to using store bought brands as long as I can help it. I purchased all of these ingredients 6 weeks ago, I still have enough already prepared laundry powder for another month or so. I also have left over Borax, Washing Soda, and Scent Booster. So when I am ready to make more, all I need to purchase is the Zote flakes. My total initial cost for everything was under $25. I think that’s a pretty good deal!
Do my clothes have the same strong scent that you would get with commercial detergents? Nope. However I have been using natural store bought detergents for a while, so I am used to a more subtle scent. My laundry still smells very yummy to me though folks. So I’m sold.
The Goree Truth 