Citrus Vinegar - homemade cleaner

I'll admit I'm not the greenest crayon in the crunchy granola box, but I do find great satisfaction in making my own detergents and home cleaners. Not only does it eliminate harmful chemicals and fumes in my home but it saves me piles of money and anyone that knows me knows that I'm a huge fan of saving money whenever possible.

Laundry Whitening Solution

I recently tried a "Miracle Laundry Whitening Solution" I found on Pinterest. We had some sheets that perhaps five or six years ago used to be white. Well, years of just washing and not whitening had taken its toll and they were looking very sad and grungy even when they were freshly laundered. So I figured I'd give this recipe a try. And I'm so glad I did! It's a little tricky photographing a pile of white sheets to accurately show just how bad they looked before and how much better they look after the experiment. But I think these pictures still give you an idea. Trust me when I say there is a noticeable difference and I'm more than happy to have given this recipe a try. I was too impatient and wanted to do the full set of queen sheets, pillow cases and mattress pad all at once so I did tweak the recipe a little since I was doing a bigger load than the other blogger.

Three Ingredient Laundry Detergent

 Buying laundry detergent is one of my least favorite things to do. It can be SO pricy! And with as much laundry as I do every week, I couldn't help but picture hard earned money swirling down the drain with all the dirty water the laundry produces. But I can't not do laundry and I'm thankful to have a family that lovingly produces so many mountains of it. So I decided to find a more economical way to get the job done and found a recipe for homemade laundry detergent. There are a LOT of recipes out there. Many of them require a long list of ingredients, lots of time grating or melting bars of soap and lots stirring and sloshing soapy detergent around in big buckets. Not saying I won't try one of those recipes sometime. In fact, I'm planning on trying this simple recipe for 6-ingredient powdered detergent sometime in the near future. But a few weeks ago my laundry was looming and my detergent bottle was empty and I refused to go out and buy some more. That's when I came across this ridiculously easy and effective homemade laundry detergent. It requires three ingredients. Just THREE! And chances are you have all of them on hand!  You can whip up a gallon of detergent in no time and continue conquering the mountains of laundry without batting an eye. I have been using this detergent for a couple weeks now and have been totally satisfied with how our laundry has come out. Sure, the scent may not be as strong as your typical store bought detergent, but if you must have laundry that smells a certain way you can always throw a dryer sheet in the dryer. Works for me.