Day 14 - Something green

I guess I'm a fairly green-minded person. I believe it is our responsibility to take care of the Earth and, frankly, wastefulness really bothers me. Also, I'm cheap. Because of these things, I firmly believe in Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. I'm not entirely green and I'm not entirely cheap, because I will pay for convenience, but I try to offset that in other ways. It's why we reused the old windows when we added on to the house. It's why we give away or donate furniture, dishes, toys, clothes, etc. when we purge and the reason I love a sack full of hand-me-downs or yard sale finds. It's why we don't regularly use paper plates and why we recycle.


Homemade Laundry Detergent  a-Cookin'



One of the greenest things I do, aside from the large recycling center in my car port, is make my own laundry detergent. I have used liquid detergent for a long time because I really hate it when the powder doesn't dissolve in the washer. Also, I really hated paying $9-$15 for the large bottle of detergent, knowing it's mostly water. (I buy large quantities of most things. It's cheaper that way.) When I realized that Pinterest could teach me how to make laundry detergent at home, and that I could make about 20 gallons for the price of a large bottle of Tide, well that's when I joined Pinterest.

My detergent is actually green in color because I use the green bars of Dove soap. I like the smell and I know that everyone in my house can bathe with it and not break out in itchy rashes. It isn't a very strong scent in terms of laundry detergent, but that's okay becuase I usually bought unscented detergent anyway (re: itchy rashes). I store it in gallon jugs, which I usually have in my recycling bins.



Reusing.

It works just as well as the store bought kind (or better, maybe), it smells like I like it, and it's very cheap.
And, now you know one more reason why my husband calls me a hippie.